Rebel Without a Cause
by Late Night Muses
Summary: FINISHED! Chris causes several problems, nearly causing injury to several of the children, so Rae and Spot send him to Brooklyn, hoping Hades and the gang can straighten him out. How will Chris adjust to being one of the street rats?
1. Default Chapter

**Chapter 1:**

"Rae? Spot? Can I talk to you two about something?" Molly asked one night a week or so after Christmas as she walked into the living room.

"Sure," Rae said, adjusting Sam in her arms.

She sat down on the couch and looked at them seriously. "I've... been thinking. I... miss my family... well, there's nothing I can do about my father when he's out at sea, but Andrew.... and my newfound sister...." She began.

"We aren't keeping you here, Molly.  You are free to leave whenever you wish."

"I just thought... I'd let you know... I mean the both of you have done so much for me..."

"We should be the ones to thank you, Molly," Spot said. "You've been a big help around here."

Her cheeks flushed a bit and she smiled. "Well... I'd like to head to Brooklyn then, for a little while... If... well, if you could tell me how to get there?"

Spot exchanged a glance with Rae. "Either I can take you, or we can wire your brother and he said he would come get you."

"If it's not a bother, I'd like you to take me, Spot."

"No bother at all.  How soon do you want to leave?"

"Tomorrow?"

"Sounds good. If we catch the 8 o'clock train we should be there around dinner time and I can catch the late train back home."

She smiled brightly. "Wonderful! Thank you!"

"Your welcome.  Why don't you go start packing?"

"Right!" She leapt to her feet and ran upstairs.

Rae smiled at Spot.  "I'm going to miss her."

"I'm surprised to say I am going to too." Spot grinned. "Can you believe she was such a brat when we first found her?"

"She's grown up, Spot. They all have.  Ann and Andy will be ready to start school in the fall."

Spot shook his head, amazed. "I can't believe it..."

She sighed and rested her head on his shoulder. "How long have we been married?"

"Eleven months, two weeks and three days."

She laughed a little. "Been keeping track, haven't you?"

"I had nothing better to do on those long nights in Brooklyn. You weren't there to cuddle with."

She smiled, snuggling under his arm. "Well I'm here to cuddle with now."

Spot smiled and then frowned. "Do you... smell something?"

Rae sat up.  "Something's burning!"

Spot jumped to his feet and ran upstairs, following the trail of smoke. Rae placed Sam in his cradle and followed close on his heels.

"It's coming from the boys' room!" he called over his shoulder, rushing into the room. They threw open the door to find the curtains covering one of the windows in flames. Spot coughed, swatting the smoke out of his face.

"Quick! Get some water!" he shouted to Rae, stomping out some of the flames that were creeping across the carpet.

Rae grabbed the pitcher from across the room and handed it to him, before reaching for Andy, who had been asleep before the fire started. Spot dunked a rag into the pitcher and flung it on the flames, stomping along the smoldering, stinking mass of charred fabric as the flames died down. Meanwhile, Rae carried Andy out into the hall to check him for burns, as the bed had been near the window.

Andy woke up coughing a little. "Momma? What...?" And then he started to cry.

"It's alright, sweetheart," she said, kissing his forehead.  "Are you hurt anywhere?"

"N-n-no," he whimpered, calming down a little. 

Julie stumbled into the hall in her nightgown. "What's going on?" she asked.

"Will you bring me a glass of water from my room, please Julie?" Rae asked.

Yawning sleepily, she nodded, went to retrieve the glass of water, and returned a few moments later. "Why do I smell smoke?"

"Because we had a little fire, but everything is alright. Go back to bed."

"A fire?" Her eyes grew wide. "Where?"

Rae handed the glass of water to Andy. "To bed Julie!"

She nodded and turned, looking a little upset that she wasn't told.

"Goodnight, Julie," Rae said before turning back to Andy. "Drink the water for Momma."

Andy whimpered a bit more. "My throat hurts..."

"I know, buddy," she said, brushing the hair from his forehead. He took the cup and drank in large gulps.

Spot walked out into the hall. "The fire is out."

Rae sighed in relief. "Thank goodness... What could have started it?"

"It looks like someone left the candle on the table under the window."

Rae nodded.  "We can make a pallet on the floor for Andy in our room for tonight."

"I don't wanna go back to sleep in there...."

Rae took him in her arms. "That's fine Andy.  We'll move you into Molly's room tomorrow," she said, kissing his forehead. She looked around. "Where's Chris?"

Spot shrugged. "I don't know.... Now that I think of it... He wasn't in the room..."

"Do you want me to help you find him? Or do you want me to get Andy back to sleep while you find him?"

"I'll look for him... you take care of Andy."

Nodding, Rae led Andy into her room and pulled some quilts from the cedar chest at the end of the bed.  She folded them and placed them on the floor.  "Alright, Andy, back to bed."

Andy sniffled and rubbed his eyes. "Night Momma..."

She kissed his forehead, "Sweet dreams."

He nodded and gave a wary glance at the curtains across the room before settling down on his pallet and closing his eyes. She tucked the quilt around his shoulders and slipped back downstairs to get Sam, who had been left in the cradle in the living room.

"Did he go to sleep easy?" Spot asked when she entered the room.

She nodded wearily and walked over to Sam's cradle. He crouched next to her and helped gather the blankets and such that she had left behind.  As they walked up the stairs, Chris came walking from the kitchen.

"Where have you been?" Spot demanded.

"I got hungry," Chris answered.

"Do you know anything about the fire that started in yours and Andy's bedroom?" Rae asked, shifting Sam from one arm to the other.

"What fire?"

"Did you leave a candle on the table under the window?"

"Yeah."

"It set fire to the curtain!" Spot yelled. "You could have burned the house down!"

"I didn't do it on purpose!" Chris retorted angrily.

"We know, Chris.... but please, be more responsible next time!" Rae said.

"He thinks I did it on purpose!" Chris yelled, causing Sam to wake up and begin to scream.

"Just- just go to your room!" Spot sputtered, stepping up next to Rae in attempts to help her calm Sam down.

"He can't sleep in there tonight, Spot.  He'll have to sleep in one of the rooms on the third floor," Rae said.

"Then.... then go find another room!" he ordered, thrusting his finger towards the staircase.

Chris growled in frustration and made his way past them up the stairs.

"He's lucky the whole blasted house didn't burn down!" Spot vented as they followed up the stairs a few minutes later.

Rae placed her hand on his shoulder. "Please calm down. No one was hurt and for that we should be thankful."

"But... he... he was so... irresponsible! I can't believe that! He's NEVER that way...."

"I'm sure it was just an accident. Let it go," she said, sitting in her rocking chair with Sam in her arms.

"But..." Spot sighed, sitting across from her. "I guess I'm just worried is all..."

"I know," she whispered, glancing at Andy sleeping on the floor across the room.

Spot glanced at Andy as well. He looked a little sooty, but the boy slept peacefully, as if the trauma hadn't happened.  He sighed. "I just hope he doesn't have nightmares like Ann tends to have."

"I don't think he will...." She chewed her lip though, watching Andy for a moment longer.

Spot stood and walked over to her.  "Get some sleep," he whispered, reaching to take Sam from her.

"I don't know if I can..." she replied hesitantly.

"At least crawl into bed and rest for a little while."

After a moment, she consented with a yawn. "All right... For a little while."

Spot took Sam and helped her to her feet.  He kissed her forehead and moved to place Sam in his cradle. Rae climbed in bed and watched him with a small smile on her face. Spot knelt beside the cradle and gently ran his hand over his son's fine, dark hair.

"I knew you'd be a wonderful father," she said with a yawn.

He turned and smiled at her. "And just how did you know that?" he asked with a smirk.

"I don't know. I just knew." She smiled and threw a pillow at him.

He caught the pillow. "If Andy wasn't sleeping over there, I'd get you."

"Guess I'm pretty lucky then..."

"I wouldn't count on it," he said, making his way toward the bed.

She held up another pillow as a shield. "Uh, uh. Andy is still sleeping there. You wake him up, you're putting him back to sleep," she warned with a giggle.

"Then you better be quiet."

She giggled more and whacked him with her pillow.

He grabbed the pillow with one hand and pulled her toward him with the other. "You'll have to pay for that, Conlon."

"Oh will I? You don't scare me, Conlon," she teased with a grin.

"Good," he whispered, kissing her. "I would hate to think you were scared of me."

"Mmm, I learned a long time ago that there was nothing to be scared of," she replied, kissing him back.

"Have I told you recently how wonderful I think you are?"

"Mm, nope. But I won't mind hearing it again," she grinned.

"I'll keep on telling you. As long as you don't get a big head."

She laughed. "No one can get as big a head as Brooklyn's Spot Conlon."

"Watch it!" he said, leaning to kiss her. She grinned, accepting his kiss. He settled her back onto the pillows. "Now sleep!"

"Yes sir!" she exclaimed with a small laugh.

"I love you," he whispered.

"I love you too," she whispered back, kissing him gently.

He smiled at her and lay down next to her, putting his arms around her. "Will you go to sleep now?"

"I think I will now."

"Good girl."

She laughed a little, yawning.

"Will you be alright here tomorrow while I take Molly to Brooklyn?"

"I'll be fine," she replied with a slight nod.

He kissed the side of her head. "Now, please, get some sleep."

She nodded sleepily and closed her eyes.

* * *

Spot bent down and gently kissed Rae.

"Go away, Spot! I just fell asleep," Rae muttered.

He laughed. "You've been asleep for 3 hours and Sam is hungry again."

"Feed him then," she mumbled, snuggling deeper under her blankets, not even thinking about what she had just said.

He pulled the covers back. "You know that I can't do that, Rae."

"You should be able to," she whined. "I'm so tired..." But she got up and picked Sam up. "I love you, little one, but I really wish you'd get a clock..." Gently, she kissed his forehead.

"He's going to go back to sleep when you finish, so why don't you just feed him in the bed," Spot suggested.

"Because then I'd have to get back up and put him in his cradle."

"I think he'll be alright sleeping beside you. As long as you don't forget that he's there and roll over and crush him," he added, winking at her.

"What about YOU rolling over?" she accused with a slight smile.

"I'm not going to because Molly and I are leaving."

She frowned. "Now?"

"It's almost eight, sweetheart."

"Already?" she murmured, smothering a yawn.

He smiled. "Yes, already," he kissed her forehead. "The others are downstairs eating breakfast, and they are under strict orders to make sure that you get lots of rest today."

"That's all I ever do," she whined.

"At least take a nap, alright?"

She nodded a bit. "You can count on that one..."

"Good. Now, can I get a kiss before I leave?"

"Mm, you better."

He smiled and bent down to kiss her.

"Hurry home," she said.

"You know I will," he whispered, running the back of his fingers gently down her cheek.

She held his hand to her face and looked at him. "Be careful."

"I will," he said, resting his forehead against hers

A moment later there was a knock on the door. "Spot?" called Molly.

He sighed. "I'm coming."

"I love you," Rae whispered.

"I love you too," he whispered, giving her another kiss. Then he grabbed his knapsack and left the room.

Rae sighed and looked down at her son. "Well, Sam, it looks like it's you and me again."

"And the rest of us." Julie poked her head into the room. "Hungry?"

"A little," she admitted.

She held up a tray with eggs and a slice of bread. "Here's breakfast.... I wasn't sure if you were going to come down or not."

"Thanks. I'll bring it back down when I finish."

"All right." Julie nodded and scooted out of the room.

"After you finish eating, little man, you are going down for a nap and I am going to go play with Ann and Andy."

Sam stared at her face, wide-eyed.

She grinned at him and laughed slightly. "I'm guess I'm not going to get an argument from you."

He waved his tiny fist in response.

After a few more minutes Sam fell asleep again, and Rae placed him in his cradle.  After changing clothes, she made her way downstairs, tray in hand, to find Ann and Andy.

They sat at a table with cards in hand, playing "Go Fishin'".

"Got any twos" Ann asked.

"Nope. Go fishin'."

Rae sat next to Ann and kissed her forehead. "Havin' fun?"

"Yup!"

"Ann! Pay 'ttention! Do you got any acies?"

Ann sighed and handed Andy two cards.

"Ha ha! The acies are mine!" he crowed, pulling the pairs out.

Laughing, Rae stood and kissed Andy's forehead. "I think I'm going to clean out the playroom."

"Want me to help, Momma?" Ann asked, setting down her cards.

"Hey!" Andy protested. "Annnn! We were playinnnnng!"

"If you both come help me, then I'll play when we finish," Rae said with a grin.

Andy looked a little grudging but he nodded. "Okay I guess..."

"I may even be able to find some special little treat in the kitchen for my helpers..."

He perked up at that. "Treat?"

"Like maybe some..." she bent down to his level and whispered, "...cookies..."

"Okay!"

"Race ya," she taunted.

"I'll get there first!" And he tore off down the hall with Ann chasing after him.

Rae laughed and walked down the hall.  When she entered the playroom Ann and Andy were arguing over who won and Julie was helping Kendra build block towers in the corner. She shook her head, placed her index finger and her thumb in her mouth, and whistled loudly.  All four heads snapped sharply in her direction.  "Enough," she said, looking at the twins.

"Yes ma'am," they chorused.

"Now come on, let's get this place cleaned up, okay?

"Okay," Ann squeaked as she walked over to the corner where her dolls lay scattered.

Andy went over to the papers where they were practicing their letters and began to make a nice stack out of them.

After a few minutes work, the room was clean once again.  "Can we have the cookies now, Momma?" Andy asked.

She smiled, glancing around the room approvingly. "Yes, you may."

"Yippe!" Ann squealed, racing for the kitchen.

"WAIT FOR ME!" Andy bellowed, dashing after her.

Rae scooped Kendra up in her arms and rubbed her nose on the little girl's belly, causing Kendra to giggle.  "Want to join us Julie?"

"Sure," Julie replied, climbing to her feet, and following Rae out of the room.

Balancing Kendra on one hip, Rae opened the cookie jar. "One cookie each," she said, handing Kendra a cracker from the pantry.

The twins snatched their cookies and Julie took one for herself.

"Have you seen Chris? I haven't seen him all morning..." Rae asked.

"He ate breakfast," Julie said, around bites of cookie. "But I haven't seen him since."

Rae frowned.

"I think he went upstairs," Ann said, with a mouth full of cookie.

She frowned again. He had been spending an awful lot of time alone lately- though he was growing up and would need his space, especially in their large household- but she was worried. He had, after all, let the curtains get on fire... what else might he forget?


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2:******

"Daddy!" Ann squealed, jumping up from the floor where she and Rae were dressing baby dolls and running across the room to Spot. He scooped her up in his arms and hugged her close, kissing her cheek.

She kissed his cheek as Rae rose to her feet.

"Can I have a kiss from Daddy now, Miss Annie?" Rae asked, walking toward them.

Ann looked at Rae and then back at Spot. "No," she said, kissing Spot's cheek again.

Spot laughed. "You've been booted out by a little one, Mrs. Conlon."

Rae huffed and crossed her arms, a pout playing on her lips.

"Aww..." He looked at Ann. "Your momma might want a fight if she doesn't get her kiss either."

Ann sighed, "Alright. I guess Momma can have a kiss."

Rae smiled. "Thank you, sweetheart."

Spot set Ann down and pulled Rae into his arms.

"Welcome home," she murmured with a smile.

"Thank you," he whispered, leaning down to kiss her.

"Did all go well in Brooklyn?" she asked after the kiss.

"Yes it did. Molly was excited to be with her brother again."

"And somewhat moody half sister as well, I hope." Rae said with a smile.

Spot smiled and leaned down to kiss her again.

She wrapped her arms around his neck. "I'm glad your home."

"And I'm not going anywhere for a long time...unless I can take you with me."

Pleased, she smiled and nodded. "Wonderful idea."

"A wonderful idea that should get a reward," he hinted.

"Would you like a cookie then?" she asked seriously, but her eyes were mischievous. 

"Why you little...." He looked down at Ann who was still standing beside them, "Should I tickle Momma, Annie?"

Ann, who had no idea what was going on except that now she wanted another cookie, nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! Tickle Momma!"

"Spot Conlon, don't you dare," Rae said as she tried to wiggle free of his arms.

"Oh, I do dare, Rae Conlon, I do." And he proceeded to tickle her.

"Stop!" She screamed, beating his chest with her fists.

"I declare..." He kissed the tip of her nose and stopped tickling her. "You're almost too ticklish."

Rae glanced down at Ann who was giggling. Two could play at that game. "I think Daddy should be punished for being so mean to Momma. What do you think, Annie?"

"Yeah!" she crowed in delight.

"That's it. No supper for you tonight, mister."

"Ooooh...." Ann gasped. "Daddy's in REAL big trouble."

"You think you're smart, don't you?" Spot asked Rae.

"I actually think I'm very smart, thankyouverymuch."

"Annie, would you please leave Momma and Daddy alone for a little while?" Spot asked, never once taking his eyes off Rae.

Ann looked between the both of them, wide-eyed and mumbled "yessir" before scampering off.

"Spot...you're scaring me," Rae whispered.

"Am I now?" he asked evenly.

"Um... yes..."

He sat on the couch. "Come here, Rae."

"Um.... I think standing right here is good and well..." she replied.

"Rae..." he said, gesturing her closer with his finger. With a frown, Rae approached him and sat down. He pulled her into his lap. "I didn't send her away because I was angry with you.  I sent her away because I wanted to be alone with you."

"Well you could've told me that...."

"You expect me to tell you that I want to cuddle with you while Ann is in the room?"

"Well.... no, but you didn't have to look so mad or anything... I truly thought you were upset!"

He laughed and bent down to kiss her.

"I'm going to get you back for scaring me like that one of these days," she replied, kissing him back.

"Sure you will," he whispered, kissing the tip of her nose.

"I will.... you don't believe me, but I will," she replied softly, but not seriously.

"I know," he whispered, kissing her.

"You're horrible, Spot Conlon," she whispered back with a smile, returning his kiss.

"But you love me anyway."

"Well, I guess you've got me on that one."

He laughed and kissed her again.

"You can't go in there, Andy," they heard Ann say from the hallway. "Momma and Daddy are cuddlin' and kissin'."

Rae glanced at Spot and burst into laugher. "Seems like she figured it out on her own anyway."

He smiled, "Should we let them come in?"

"I suppose," she relented. "They'll only get ornery if we don't."

Spot turned his head toward the door. "It's alright to come back in now Annie."

Ann and Andy scampered into the room and dove onto the couch between Rae and Spot. "Are you going back to Brookeen, Daddy?" Ann asked.

"Were you REALLY kissin'?" Andy asked. "Ewwwwww...."

"No, I'm not going back to Brooklyn, and yes, I was really kissing your momma."

"Ewwwww...." Andy repeated.

Spot laughed and ruffled the boy's hair. "Tell me what you did while I was gone."

"Well... um... we... um... oh yeah, we cleaned the playroom, me and Ann got in a fight... um.... and that's it!" Andy explained.

"We played 'Go Fishin' with Momma," Ann added

"We let Momma win."

Rae laughed and kissed both of their foreheads. "Thank you sweethearts." They both grinned up at her.

Spot chuckled. "Sounds like I missed out on all the fun!"

"Maybe you can get Daddy to play with you later," Rae said, winking at the twins.

"YEAH!" they shrieked.

"Daddy, will you?"

"Please, Daddy, PLEEEEASE?"

He smiled, "Only if you can get Momma to play too."

"Will you Momma? Huh, huh, huh?"

"Of course"

"YAAAAAAY!" they shrieked again.

"I'll go get the cards," Ann said, jumping off the couch.

Spot chuckled as Andy tore off after her, yelling "Wait for me!"

"They're great kids."

Rae smiled and scooted back over next to him. "Yes. I'm glad we found them."

He nodded in agreement. "But I also liked having one of our own..."

"I did too," she said, resting her head on his shoulder.

Spot slipped his arm around her and held her for a few moments until Ann and Andy returned with the cards, singing a very random song about "Go Fishin'".

Rae slid to the floor. "I don't think Daddy knows how to play, so we can play teams. Me and Annie against Daddy and Andy," Rae said, winking at Spot.

"Boys against girls, hmm? Let's show these girls a thing or two about 'Go Fishin'!" Spot said.

"YEAH!" Andy yelled, plopping next to Spot.

Rae put on her best poker face and began to deal the cards. Spot put up his own poker face as he gathered his cards and huddled with Andy.

An hour later Julie walked in with Sam to see the four still on the floor in the middle of a fierce game of cards.

"Go fishin'!" Andy crowed hopping in his seat as Rae picked up a new card. Spot whispered in Andy's ear and the little boy asked, "Do you have any Kings?"

Ann wrinkled her nose and handed over a king.

"Sorry to interrupt," Julie said, "but I think Sam's hungry."

Rae set her cards down. "All right-"

"Sure, just as we were winning," Spot teased.

Rae wrinkled her nose at him. "He's your son..."

"I know, and a very handsome one at that."

"You're full of it," she said, taking Sam from Julie.

"Mm, that I could be," he agreed with a nod.

"I really have to do something about that ego of yours, but Sam comes first."

"Would you really have me any other way?" he asked with a grin.

She smiled as she left the room, leaving his question unanswered.

"Is Momma gonna come back quick?" Ann asked, a little upset that her teammate had left.

"I don't know," Spot said, climbing to his feet. "I'll go check."

"I'll protect our cards so Ann won't peek," Andy said.

"HEY! I won't peek! YOU would!"

Ann argued.

"No fighting you two," Spot said, heading toward the door.  "Keep an eye on them Julie."

Julie nodded and smiled. 

Spot jogged up the stairs and paused in the hallway when he heard Kendra crying in the girls' room.  "Hey princess," he said, as he moved to pick her up from out of her crib.

Kendra sniffled and whimpered, clenching a fistful of his shirt

"It's alright, sweetheart," he said, stroking her fine blond curls. "Daddy's here."

"Daddy," she repeated, still whimpering a little.

He kissed her forehead. "Let's go find Momma."

"Momma," she echoed.

He smiled and carried her across the hall into the room he shared with Rae. "Oh Mommy," he called softly as he entered the room. "Another baby wants to see you."

She was sitting in her chair by the fireplace and smiled when he walked in with Kendra.  "Bring her close for a kiss, Daddy." He brought Kendra over and sat her down at the foot of Rae's chair. "Good morning, sweet baby," Rae said, kissing Kendra's forehead.

"Morny," Kendra replied, grasping the chair edge and standing on her toes to see the baby in Rae's lap.

"Lift her up, Daddy," Rae said with a smile.  "Don't touch, Sam, sweetheart."

Kendra nodded, peering at the little baby. She murmured jargon to herself tilting her head from one side to the other.

"Ann wants to know if you are going to be gone long," Spot said, as Kendra continued to talk to Sam.

Rae laughed. "As long as it takes for Sam to fall asleep... He seems to be deeply involved in conversation with Kendra."

The two watched as Sam and Kendra "talked". Sam was mostly just opening and closing his mouth while Kendra was making most of the noise.  "They are adorable," Spot said kissing the side of Rae's head.

"Yes," she agreed. "Very."

"Thank you," he whispered, leaning to kiss her.

"For what?" she replied after the kiss ended.

"For being you. For Sam and the others. For everything."

She smiled at him, shifting Sam in her arms a bit, as he slowly began to nod off. "You're as much a part of it as I am."

"I love you," he whispered, placing his hand on her cheek.

"I love you too," she replied softly with a smile. "Oh, it looks like little Sam has fallen asleep..."

"Do you want me to move him?"

"I've got it," she replied, slowly rising from her chair.

He stood and scooped Kendra up into his arms and they waited while Rae placed Sam in his cradle.

"Let's go downstairs, shall we? I believe we have a card game to finish."

"If Ann and Andy haven't killed each other yet."

She chuckled and led the way downstairs. Surprisingly, they weren't met by screaming voices.

They sat on the floor almost knee to knee, staring silently at each other.

Spot and Rae exchanged glances, and he set Kendra on the floor. "Alright you two... what's going on?"

Julie laughed slightly. "They are seeing who can be the quietest."

"I like this game," Rae said with a grin.

"Julie should have thought of it sooner," Spot added.

"Just be grateful I thought of it now," Julie replied with a smile.

While they were talking, Kendra had crawled over to the cards and began to throw them around the room.

Both Ann and Andy looked ready to yell at her, but then they looked at each other, and seemed unwilling to be the first one to make noise.

"Kendra Conlon," Rae fussed picking the baby girl back up. "What are we going to do with you?"

"You!" she exclaimed with a grin.

With a sigh Rae handed Kendra to Spot, "You deal with her. I'm too tempted to smile or laugh."

With a smile, he took Kendra from her. "Don't throw the cards around honey. You can't mess up things that aren't yours to mess up."

Rae knelt to pick up the cards. "You two can talk now. As long as you don't yell at Kendra."

They looked at Rae and then eyed one another, going through the "You first" "No, you first" silent debate.

Rae rolled her eyes and looked to Spot for help.

"Who wants cookies?"

They looked at Spot and waved their hands in the air.

He shook his head. "No cookies for anyone who doesn't say 'me!'"

Ann and Andy looked at one another again and then simultaneously yelled "ME!"

"That worked," Spot said looking at Rae.  "Last one to the kitchen is a rotten egg." Ann and Andy ran off in a flash. "You too girls," Spot said as he followed the twins with Kendra.

Rae chuckled and she and Julie followed as well.

* * *

Rae opened the front door of the house and walked out onto the porch. She smiled as she watched Spot playing in the snow with Kendra and the twins.  Julie walked out and stood beside her. "Have you seen Chris around, Rae?"

"Not since lunch, why?"

"Just wondering."

"I wonder where he takes himself off to all day and what he does."

Julie shrugged and frowned. "I don't think he's ever been like this..."

Rae sighed. "Well, it's time for dinner and if he's not here on time he doesn't eat."

She sighed, biting her lip worriedly. 

Spot walked up the porch steps with a snow-covered Kendra in his arms. "Hey, girls, is dinner ready yet?"

"Just about," Julie replied. "You may want to come in and warm up."

"Time to come in," Spot called to the twins.

"Awwww," Ann said with a bit of a pout.

Andy, on the other hand, bolted for the door. "Good! I'm hungry!"

Spot stopped him with a firm hand on his head.  "Leave your coat, hat, gloves and boots by the door."

Andy wrinkled his nose, shedding his outer layer of wet clothing quickly. "Yessir... Yipes! It's cold!" he yelped, charging inside.

Rae smiled and took Kendra from Spot to take her wet things off.

Ann removed her wet clothes as well and scampered into the house with Julie.

Rae turned to head back into the house, but Spot caught her arm and pulled her toward him.

"Spot, you're all wet," she protested, "And I just took off Kendra's wet things."

He simply grinned.

She gave him a quick kiss. "Now let me go."

Tilting his head to the side, he gave her another grin. "Hmm... I don't know, should I let Momma go, Kendra?"

Kendra smiled and began bouncing in Rae's arms.

"Looks like she's saying no," Spot replied.

"How can you tell?! She hasn't said a word! For all you know, she could mean yes!"

"Hmm....kiss me again...and I just might let the two of you go."

"If I do and you don't let me go, I won't kiss you ever again," she warned.

"Sure..."

"I mean it..."

He gave her a quick kiss. "Told ya."

"You kissed me, I didn't kiss back."

"You let me kiss you."

"Next time you won't be so lucky."

"I think Kendra's getting cold...Are you going to kiss me or not?"

"Fine. But this is only for Kendra's sake." Rae kissed him.

He smiled and carried Kendra into the house

She rolled her eyes with a faint smile of her own and followed them into the house. The delicious aroma of warm food wafted over to her and she sighed. "Smells good Julie," she commented.

"Thanks," Julie said, placing the last bowl on the table.

After washing up, the family sat at the table, minus Chris. Not ten minutes later Chris walked in and sat down at the table.

"Where have you been?" Spot asked immediately.

"Around," came the muttered reply.

"I'm aware that you have been around. I asked you a question and I expect a proper reply," he replied sternly.

"I've been upstairs in that little cell of a room on the third floor," Chris snapped.

"Watch the way you talk to me, young man," Spot replied, giving Chris a glare.

"I'll talk to you the way I want to. You aren't my father, ya freak."

Spot stood quickly, shoving the chair back a few feet. Reaching out, he smacked Chris across the face. Everyone stared at the two in shock.  Finally Chris stood and stormed from the room.

"Spot-"

"Not now, Rae."

Rae sighed and stood.  She picked up the extra plate and began to dish food onto it.

"No."

Rae ignored him and placed a biscuit on the plate.

"Sit down Rae."

"No, Spot. Obnoxious or not, he's still going to be hungry. And now that you and I can afford it, he's not going to be hungry."

He sighed and waved her toward the door. "Fine! Do what you want!"

She gave him a look, mid-reach for a piece of chicken. "You knock that off right now! Just because Chris was rude and immature doesn't mean you need to be that way, Spot Conlon!"

"Momma...are you mad at Daddy?" Ann asked, softly.

After a moment, Rae sighed. "Not exactly."

"Do you love Daddy?"

"Yes, honey. I do."

"Please don't yell at Daddy anymore...it makes me sad."

Rae frowned slightly. All she wanted to DO was yell at him right at the moment, but she looked at Ann and sighed again. "I'll try." Ann smiled and went back to her dinner.  Rae grabbed a glass of water and headed towards the stairs.

Arriving at the third floor door, to the room where Chris was sleeping for the next few days, she tapped on it. "Chris?"

"What?" he yelled.

Frowning deeply, she tapped her foot in slight annoyance. "I brought you some dinner."

"I'm not hungry!"

"Well, I'll leave it outside your door in case you do get hungry."

"Whatever!"

Rae bit down on her tongue, determined not to egg this fight on, and walked off.

Everyone was eating quietly when she returned to the dining room, including Kendra who looked ready to fall asleep in her high chair.

Rae managed a smile and went to pick Kendra up. "I think someone is ready for bedtime."

Spot nodded. "I'll take care of her. You eat."

"Thank you," she said with a small smile, handing Kendra over.

Julie finished a moment later and began to silently clean the dishes from the table.

Rae glanced at the girl worriedly. "Are you all right Julie?"

"I'm sorry, Rae. Chris shouldn't have acted like that."

With a tired sort of sigh, she rubbed her forehead. "You shouldn't apologize for your brother. He should do it himself... And there must be something going on with him that he won't tell us.... Do you know anything?" Julie shook her head sadly and walked into the kitchen. Rae frowned deeply, and finished her dinner.

* * *

Midmorning the next day Ann walked into Rae's room. She gasped, "Momma, why are you wearing pants?" the little girl asked.

Rae turned toward her. "Annie, please go back out into the hall and knock on the door."

"But Momma! Girls don't wear pants!" she exclaimed as Rae gently ushered her out the door.

"I'll talk to you have you knock on the door and ask permission to come in."

"But-!"

Rae closed the door and not even a second later, Ann was banging on it. "Can I come in Momma?"

Rae opened the door. "Yes, Annie, you may come in."

Ann barged right in. "Why are you wearing pants Momma?"

"Because I have to clean up that mess in the boy's room and I can't very well do it in a dress."

She stared at her in awe. "But... isn't it weird...?"

"Nope. I used to wear pants all the time in Brooklyn."

"Really?" she asked in a hushed voice. 

"Yes, really. Go ask Daddy."

"Daddy let you wear pants??!"

Rae laughed. "Go ask him."

She ran from the room, shouting, "DADDYYYY!!"

Rae laughed and looked at her reflection in the mirror.  She quickly braided her hair into two braids and tucked them under an old cap.  She smiled at her reflection.  Had it really been almost a year since she had last dressed like this? She turned a full circle, smoothing her hands over her old pants. Admittedly, she missed wearing those old things. Thanks to Sam they actually fit her a little bit better too.

A minute later, Spot walked in, saying, "What's all the commotion about? Ann came running in, babbling about how you were wearing pants..."

"What do you think?" she asked, turning a circle.

He smiled hugely. "Beautiful."

"You really think so?"

"Of course."

"Are you really gonna let Momma wear pants?" Andy asked from the open doorway, where he stood next to Ann.

Spot glanced back at them and shrugged. "Momma can wear what she likes... She has for a long time before we ever got married."

"Do I have to wear pants too?" Ann asked.

Rae laughed. "No, sweetheart. You don't have to wear pants."

Ann looked at the floor thoughtfully for a moment. "If I help you clean the boys' room, can I?"

She smiled and nodded. "If you want to."

"But I don't have any pants."

"You can wear some of Andy's.  The ones I'm wearing belong to Daddy."

"Hey! I don't wanna girl wearin' my pants!" Andy protested.

Rae smiled and looked at Spot, "Care to handle this one, Daddy?"

He turned to Andy and crouched to the boy's level. "You're going to share with Ann, Andy. If she likes wearing the pants, we'll get her a pair of her own. But for now, it would be nice if you shared with her."

The little boy sighed deeply. "Alright, I guess I'll share."

"Thank you." Spot ruffled Andy's hair.

Rae scooped Ann up and threw her over her shoulder. "Come on Miss Annie, let's go find you some pants." Ann giggled delightedly. Rae set her back down. "Actually...Andy why don't you go pick out which pair you want to share with Annie."

He looked as though he could deal with this a little better and he took Ann's hand, pulling her out of the room. "C'mon Annie... I'll find ya some pants."

Rae turned to Spot, "You aren't upset that I didn't ask you first are you?"

"Of course I am. I don't want no girls wearing my pants!" he said with a grin.

She smiled back at him. "Just so you aren't mad."

"I'm furious," he teased, pulling her into his arms. She laughed. He pulled the hat from her head and stuck it on his own. "I think this belongs to me too."

"So you'd like to think," she grinned, taking the hat back.

He kissed her and after a moment the hat dropped to the floor as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

She was just about to kiss him back when Ann burst into the room, shrieking, "I got pants just like Momma!"

Spot scooped the hat up off the floor and plopped it on Andy head. "Let's leave the girls alone while they change."

Andy nodded vigorously.

A few minutes later Ann was in the pants and shirt she had borrowed from her brother. "They feel funny, Momma."

Rae smiled. "They will at first. But you'll get used to them." Ann squirmed around a bit and made a face. "You can change back if you want to," she told her with a smile.

Determination filled the little girl's eyes. "No."

Rae smiled. "All right. Come on, let's get cracking."

Rae took her hand and they headed across the hall to clean up the mess from the fire.

* * *

"ANN! ANDY! For the last time, stop screaming!" Rae shouted as the twins raced past her, shrieking at the top of their lungs.

Neither one seemed to hear her and they continued running around the house screaming.

"CHRIS!" 

After a moment he appeared on the stairs. "Yeah, yeah, what do you want?"

"Could you PLEASE take them outside to burn some energy?" Rae asked, looking at the twins wearily.

"Do I have to?"

She gave him a look that clearly read 'yes' or she would do something drastic. Grumbling, he grabbed Andy by the belt loops and Ann by the hand and drug them outside.

With a weary sigh, Rae plopped onto the sofa and closed her eyes.

Two hours later Chris came walking back inside, his hands shoved into his pockets. "Where are the twins?" Rae asked as he headed up the stairs.

Chris shrugged. "They ran off."

"Where are they, Chris?" she demanded.

"I don't know, okay?"

"Why not?"

"Because I told you, they ran off!"

"You were supposed to be watching them!"

"I was!" Chris yelled.

"Then you should have followed them!"

He snorted and headed for the stairs again.

"You hold it right there, young man. I'm not finished with you," she said in a tone that surprised him.

Turning, he folded his arms over his chest and stared at her.

"Someone has to watch Sam and Kendra while Spot and I go find the twins."

"Why can't Julie do it?"

"Because I told her to take a nap that's why."

"Well, why did you go and do a thing like that?"

Rae gave an exasperated sigh. "We didn't plan on you losing the twins!" she snapped.

He didn't budge from his place on the stairs.

"MOVE IT!"

Glaring at her, he moved, and she went up to retrieve Spot. Coming back down, she gave Chris a stern glare as she put on her coat. "I don't want ANYTHING happening to them, understand?"

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered, stretching out on the couch

"We mean it," Spot said sternly.

"Alright, already," Chris muttered.

They hurried out the door.

* * *

THUD!

Chris sat up with a jolt.  He hadn't meant to doze off. Not really anyway.  A quick glance showed that Sam was still sleeping in his cradle. "What in the world-?" he murmured drowsily. What could have possibly made such an odd noise? A loud wail suddenly reached his ears.

He dashed through the door into the entry way and discovered Kendra on her back on the floor next to the stairs.  As he started to move to her, the front door opened and Rae and Spot rushed in.

"What happened?!" Spot demanded.

"I don't know!" Chris answered as Rae knelt next to Kendra and took the screaming baby into her arms.

"Well, what were YOU doing when this happened?! Don't you know you need to keep an eye on her when we're away?!" Rae exclaimed.

"I'm sorry. I was in the living room and I guessed I must have dozed off."

"Dozed off? Dozed OFF?!" Spot yelled.

"I didn't mean to!" Chris yelled back.

"You didn't mean it?" Spot questioned.  "Like you didn't mean to set the curtain in your room on fire? Or how about leaving Ann and Andy out in the woods?"

"I didn't mean any of those things!" Chris bellowed.

"Your irresponsibility is getting out of hand-"

"I'm not irresponsible!" He clenched his fists, as if ready to strike Spot.

"It's not just the irresponsibility, Chris! It's your attitude!  You sulk around the house all day long snapping at anyone who dares speak to you!"

"I don't have an attitude!" he bellowed.

"Chris..." Julie began.

"Leave me alone!" He roughly pushed his sister out of the way.

Without warning Spot shoved the boy up against the wall. "That's what I'm talking about Chris! Now pack your bags and get out!"

"Oh great! Where am I gonna go, genius?!"

"That's it... I'm taking you to Brooklyn. Upstairs! Now!"

"You aren't being serious?"

"Do I look like I'm joking? NOW!"

Chris turned to Rae, who was still sitting on the floor with Kendra clinging to her. "Surely you aren't going to let him do this to me?"

Rae looked at him. "He told you to pack, young man, didn't he?"

"What about Julie?"

"Julie is free to stay or go. It's her choice," Spot answered.

"Julie?" Chris asked, turning toward his sister.

She paused, biting her lip. Looking sadly towards her brother, she shook her head. "I'm sorry Chris. I'm going to stay here."

"But Julie..." he started, but trailed off when two little figures walked slowly through the front door. It was the twins. They yawned sleepily, walking past him. "They get into just as much trouble if not more than I do! How come they get to stay?" Chris whined, pointing at them.

"Because they don't set curtains aflame! They don't lose little children! THEY don't let little babies fall down stairs!" Spot snapped.

"That's not fair!"

"In my opinion, it's too fair!"

"But..."

"UPSTAIRS NOW!"

Chris stalked towards the staircase, sending a dark glare towards Ann and Andy. "This is all your fault!" he snapped.

They hung their heads, knowing that he was partially correct.

"Get up there and start packing. Right now, Chris!" Rae ordered, thrusting her finger towards the stairs.

He sent another glare towards the twins and then turned his glare to Rae before he stormed up the stairs.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3:**

Rae sighed, closing her eyes, and, after a moment, went to attend to Ann and Andy. "Come. Let's get you two cleaned up."

As she tried to stand, Kendra screamed and clung even tighter to Rae.

Sighing again, she squatted down and picked Kendra up. "Come on, honey. Let's go."

"Are we in trouble, Momma?" Andy asked as Rae left the room with the twins.

"For running off from Chris, yes, a bit."

"Are you going to make us go away too?"

She managed to give him a tired smile. "No, sweetheart. I won't make you or Ann go away."

Julie watched them as they left, before she slowly turned and headed toward the porch.

"Julie," Spot called after her.

She paused and turned towards him. "Yes?"

"Are you alright?"

After a moment, she nodded. "Yes... I'm fine."

"Would you like to go with me to take him to Brooklyn?"

She slowly shook her head. "It will be better this way."

"Are you sure?" he asked, concerned.

"Yeah. Besides, Rae will need some help."

Spot smiled. "You're a good kid, Julie."

She gave a slight smile. "Thanks."

He nodded at her and went to go help Rae with the twins.

Rae was in the kitchen trying to wash the twins' faces, while struggling with Kendra who was still clinging tightly to her.

With a small smile, Spot stepped over to her. "Let me handle Ann and Andy," he said quietly.

She gave him a tired, yet grateful smile and quietly left the room with Kendra. She walked into the living room and sat down in the rocking chair. Kendra whimpered softly, clinging to her.

"It's alright, sweetheart," Rae whispered, kissing Kendra's forehead.

She hugged Rae tightly.

After a moment Kendra's eyes began to get heavy.  Rae jostled her a bit. "You can't sleep right now sweetheart." Kendra sniffled a bit.

"S'eep...." she mumbled, scrubbing her eyes with her fists.

"I'm sorry, baby, but Momma can't let you sleep right now."

Again, she whimpered and Rae frowned. What could have made Chris so irresponsible?!

Just then Spot walked in. "How is she?" he asked.

"Tired," she replied, shifting the little girl's weight from one leg to the other. 

"Let me guess, she can't go to sleep because she hit her head, right?"

"Right... I don't want to take any chances.... This could be serious."

"If you want I can just drop Chris off at the train station in town and let him find his own way to Brooklyn."

"But who would explain it to them when he showed up? And who could even say he'd show up?" she pointed out.

He sighed. "I don't want you to have to deal with this by yourself.  What if I just take Chris as far as the Brooklyn station?"

"You'd better find someone around there to warn Hades. Otherwise she'll probably have our heads for just sending him."

"I'll get Silk to tell her. She usually works the station."

After a moment, she finally nodded. "All right. That sounds fine."

Chris came stomping into the room. "I'm ready to go now, master," he said angrily.

Spot resisted the urge to revert to his old Brooklyn self and beat Chris into the ground for mouthing off to him- and it was very hard for him to resist- and motioned for the boy to follow him. "See you soon." He kissed Rae's cheek and led Chris out the door.

* * *

Spot stepped off the train and waited for a sulking Chris to follow him.  While he waited, he glanced around hoping to catch sight of Silk.  Sure enough she was leaning against a wall not too far away. She met his gaze and gave a slight nod.

Glancing back- though he knew Chris would take his sweet time just to annoy him- he made a quick check, just in case, and motioned for Silk to come over.

She slowly walked his way. "Long time no see, Conlon."

"Indeed it has." He glanced back and then pulled her aside. "Listen... I have a proposal to make."

She nodded. "I'm listening...and it better be worth it." He murmured his proposal to her and waited for her reaction. "What's in it for me?" she questioned.

Spot reached into his pocket and pulled out a five-dollar note. "Will this be enough?"

She held out her hand. "Another dollar and it will be plenty."

He handed her the dollar. "Now disappear before Chris decides to show up."

She smiled and flicked another dollar bill at him. "I think you've gotten soft since you've left Brooklyn. Watch your pockets more carefully." And then she disappeared into the crowd.

"That girl," he muttered as Chris finally stepped from the train.

"Well?" Chris muttered, dropping his small carpetbag onto the ground.

"I'm leaving you here.  Any newsie will be able to give you directions to the lodging house."

He stared at Spot. "What?!"

Spot rolled his eyes. "Do I have to hold your hand and walk you to the lodging house?"

Glowering at Spot, he picked up his bag and stalked off.

Spot glanced back to where Silk had been standing earlier. Once again she was leaning against the wall.  When she met his gaze, she again nodded and moved to follow Chris through the crowd.

Chris headed down the unfamiliar, crowded streets, grumbling under his breath. He was too mad to be worried about getting lost.

"You're Chris right?" a young newsgirl asked.

He jumped with a start and looked to see who was talking to him. "Yes...." he replied vaguely, sizing the newsgirl up.

She looked around. "Where's Spot and Rae?"

"Back in Pleasant Valley. Well... Spot's on his way back."

"Why are you here by yourself?"

"Long story," he muttered.

"Are you headed toward the lodging house?"

"Uh.... yeah... yeah, that's where I'm heading I suppose." He nodded briefly.

"You're lost aren't you?" she giggled.

"I guess..."

She giggled harder.

"What? What's so funny?" Chris demanded.

"You are."

"...I don't get it..."

"You came from the station right?"

"Yes..." He still wasn't sure he got it.

"You must have passed half a dozen newsies and you didn't bother to ask for directions."

"Well.... I..." Chris huffed and pursed his lips together. Could he help it that he had been silently venting to himself for the last ten minutes? ...Probably, his logical half argued.

"Would you like me to take you to the lodging house, Chris?"

"Yes, please."

"Well, come on, but I have to finish selling my papers first."

"Um... okay... .... Who are you?"

She smiled. "My name is Jecca."

"Okay...." He looked at the papers under her arm. "How long will it take you to sell 'em?"

"Long enough," she said, walking away

"Long enough?" he murmured to himself, out of her hearing range. "What's that supposed to mean?"

When she noticed that he wasn't following her, she came back and grabbed his hand. "Come on, already," she said, pulling his hand.

"I'm coming, I'm coming."

"Keep up! I don't want to loose you in this crowd."

Chris gripped his bag tighter and picked up his pace after her.

He watched amazed as she yelled out a headline over the din of the crowd through which they walked.

He was even more amazed when she managed to sell three newspapers in the span of a couple minutes.

He stumbled forward when someone shoved into him from behind.  "I'm so sorry," a girl about his age mumbled.

He made an agitated jerk at his shirt and watched the girl weave off through the crowd.

He looked around for his guide and found that he had lost her in the crowd. "Just what I need," he muttered.

Wandering around a bit, he felt himself getting more lost until a hand grabbed his arm. "Didn't you ever learn that if you got lost, you should stay in the same place?" Jecca asked.

He pulled his arm from her grasp. "I never got lost before."

She wagged her finger at him. "A first time for everything... and most firsts are got in Brooklyn..." She grinned. "Anyway... come on... I'm about done selling."

"About time," he muttered.

She gave him a look. "I could have just let you stay lost, you know...."

"Alright, alright, can we just get out of here?"

She sighed, rolling her eyes. "I told you... after I'm done selling."

"How much longer?"

"As long as it takes!" she snapped. 

"Hurry up!" he yelled.

And with that, Jecca decided she couldn't stand him anymore, and she slapped him.

Without thinking, he hit her back.

"You pig!" She stomped hard on his foot and stalked off.

He hopped on one foot for a moment, before he realized that he didn't know his way around.  Shoving people aside, he hurried to catch up with Jecca again.

But it seemed Jecca was very determined to lose him and force him to find his way to the lodging house on his own.

"Jecca! Please wait!" he finally yelled.

"I don't wait for fellas who act like scabs!"

"I'm sorry!"

She stopped and turned around to let him catch up. "You're lucky I sold all my papes today. One thing you gotta learn out here is just saying sorry doesn't cut it. You gotta learn to show it."

"What do you want me to do? Buy you dinner?"

She rolled her eyes. "You have a lot to learn."

"Look, I don't want to be here, alright."

"Then go back home."

"I can't!"

"Then suck it up, ya whiner."

"You aren't making this very easy!"

"This is Brooklyn, it's never easy."

He grabbed her by the shoulders. "Just take me to Blank. NOW!"

She jerked out of his grip. "I'll take you right off the Bridge if you treat me like that!"

"Look, kid, I don't have to put up with this from you!"

"Fine. Then don't." Jecca turned on her heel and darted deep into the crowds leaving the factories and offices for home.

Chris growled in frustration and hurried after her.

Jecca was fast, he had to admit that. He was having difficulty navigating the crowds so swiftly.

At last the crowds cleared a bit and he run up next to her.

"Well, I thought you didn't want to deal with me," Jecca asked after a moment.

"I still don't know where I'm going."

"You'd find it... or die trying."

"Why are you so rude to me?"

She gave him a sidelong glance. "What goes around comes around. You live with Spot, you ought to know that."

He rolled his eyes. "I should have known I'd get stuck with a friend of Spot's."

"We all are, bonehead."

"Molly isn't."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that, pal."

He rolled his eyes and followed her through an alley onto another street.

"How much further do we have to walk?"

"Will you stop complaining?"

"Maybe."

She shook her head. "No wonder you're stuck here.... There it is." She pointed across the street.

"It's about time," he muttered, crossing the street ahead of her.

"He needs a REALLY good soaking," Jecca muttered to herself, following him.

Molly glanced up when the door to the lodging house opened. She smiled when she saw Chris, thinking that they whole family had come for a visit. It had been three weeks since she had left, and she missed them all terribly.

Chris simply grunted and plopped onto a chair.

Molly looked out the door, confused when she didn't see Spot and Rae or the other children. "Are you alone?" Molly asked him.

"Yes," he muttered.

"Why?"

He shrugged. "Who knows with that freak."?

"He's not a freak!" Jecca yelled as she headed up the stairs.

With a snort, Chris slumped further in the seat.

"How's Kendra?" Molly asked, nearing Chris' chair.

"Just bug off, will you?!" he snapped.

"I want to know about my baby!"

"She's fine!" 

"You're lying! I can tell."

"I don't know what you're talking about," he muttered, looking away.

Chris was suddenly pulled from his chair by a firm hand. "Tell my sister what she wants to know. NOW!" Blank barked in his ear.

Chris yelped in surprise.

"Tell her!"  When Chris hesitated, Blank's fist connected with his ribs.

He doubled over, gasping.

"What happened to my baby?" Molly asked again.

"She... fell," he croaked.

"From what? What happened? Is she alright?"

"The stairs. I don't know. And as far as I knew, she was."

Tears filled Molly's eyes and she quickly turned and ran up the stairs.

Blank slapped him in the back of the head and followed her. "Stay away from my sister, kid," Blank threatened as he left the room.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4:**

It was near dawn as Spot wearily trudged up the walk to the house. He entered to find it all dark but one small light, where Rae was sitting on a chair, asleep, with Sam dozing in his cradle at her feet. Kendra slept curled up in Rae's lap, her tiny fists tightly clutching Rae's robe. With a smile, he crossed the room, and gently kissed Rae's forehead.

She slowly opened her eyes and gave him a weary smile. "Hey," she whispered.

"Hello," he replied with a smile in return. "Did you wait up for me?"

"I was going to wait up alone, but two someones wouldn't let me."

Gently, he patted Kendra's head. "Well of course, they want to protect their mom, as they should." Again, he smiled.

"Want to help me get them to their beds?"

"Sure." He scooped up Sam's cradle and rested it on his hip. "Lead the way, fair damsel."

She smiled and shook her head as she headed up the stairs with Kendra in her arms.

He followed her and set Sam at the foot of their bed.

Rae placed Kendra in the bed in the girls' room, before joining Spot in their room. "How did everything go?" she inquired, crawling into bed next to him.

"Well, Chris was about as rotten and immature as I assumed he'd be." He grinned a bit. "But I think Brooklyn will knock him straight again."

"Silk?" Rae asked around a yawn.

With a soft laugh, he nodded. "You know me too well."

She smiled and rested her head on his shoulder.

"How were the kids? Any trouble?"

"Julie moped around a bit, but no real problems."

"About Chris?" He looked at her curiously. "I told her she could have come if she wanted to."

"She didn't want to, but she does miss him.  From what I gathered, they've never been separated before."

He looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully for a while. "I wonder what made him start behaving like this." It certainly boggled his mind. Perfectly well behaved to downright rebellious. "Did Julie say anything about him acting out before?"

"No.  Do you think it could be because they still haven't heard from their father?"

Pausing to consider this, he finally replied, "You know... I don't know... If it is... we probably could have went a little easier on him... we both have been in... similar- though not quite- situations."

Rae sighed. "How much longer were we supposed to let it continue? First the fire, then leaving the twins in the woods, and letting Kendra fall down the stairs. Were we supposed to wait until one was them was seriously hurt or even killed?"

"Well, no, of course not... I just thought... aghh.." He sighed.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.  "Maybe I shouldn't have said anything."

Spot shook his head. "You had a point."

"I wish there had been some other way."

"So do I."

She sighed deeply. "I wish we could find their father."

He nodded. "I wonder if there's a way we could ... I don't know... search more area...." He sighed. "It's an awful big world though..."

"That's the problem."

"Yes.... that's almost the only problem."

Rae yawned loudly and nodded.

With a smile, he kissed her gently. "Go to sleep."

"Yes sir," she whispered sleepily.

"Love you," he murmured.

"Love you...too..."

* * *

Chris tossed about on the thin, uncomfortable mattress that rested on the bunk Hades had grudgingly given him. She was just about as eager to see him as he was to be there. And boy, had she given up a fight about it. He groaned, hearing a couple of boys snoring, one talking in his sleep about dancing donkeys, and a few others tossing fitfully in their dreams. Maybe he should just leave. Hades would sure be happy to see him leave. So would Blank, Shadow and Molly.

Besides, having all these people around was liable to drive him batty! At first, he thought the house with Spot, Rae, and everyone was crowded... but never before had he seen such a small building stuffed to the gills with ... just people! What he really wanted to do was go find his father, but he didn't have to money for passage to Europe, so he was stuck here until he earned enough money to do so. IF his father was even still IN Europe, reason argued. He frowned deeply, shifting his weight off a hard lump in the mattress.

"Quit moving around and go to sleep!" A rough voice from the bunk below his muttered.

Chris fell motionless. He didn't remember who was sleeping down there, and at that moment, he didn't really want to find out. He sighed. I wonder what Julie is doing...

"Sleeping like the rest of us are TRYING to do!" Chris hadn't realized that he had spoken his thoughts. "You're already on my bad side, kid. I'd suggest not making me any madder," Blank muttered, from beneath him.

Oh right... it was Blank... Chris grumbled under his breath and, if it were daylight, he would have been able to give Blank a glare to end all glares.

"Go to sleep, kid. We have to get up with the sun."

"I'm trying," he muttered, rolling onto his other side.

"Quiet!" someone from across the room hissed loudly.

The door flew open and Hades stormed in. "SHUT UP NOW! We can hear all your noise across the hall." And the room fell totally silent, even from the sleepers. "GOODNIGHT!" she barked, before slamming the door shut again.

And there was no more to be said on any subject for the remainder of that night.

* * *

Morning came far too early for Chris, but he managed to crawl out of bed and follow the newsies to the distribution center.  Once there he reached into his back pocket to grab his wallet, but found it empty.

'Must've left it in the lodging house,' he thought, frowning. He turned and headed back in the direction of the house.

A girl about his age stood in front of the gate, blocking his way.  "Looking for this?" she asked, holding up his wallet.

His mouth fell open. "Wha- how... you?... Where'd you find that?"

She snickered. "In your pocket."

"But.... I..." Then he gave her an accusing look. "You picked my pocket!

"Of course."

He choked. "What do you MEAN of course?!"

"It's my job to pick pockets."

"Not mine!" he yelped.

"Yes, yours actually. I got paid good money to pick your pocket."

"I- you- I- WHAT!" 

She tossed the wallet at him. "See ya 'round, kid," she said, walking away.

He fumbled, catching the wallet and poked through it. "Hey! I had two dollars in here!" he yelled.

"Check your pocket," she yelled over her shoulder.

So he did. The two dollars where there, just like she said.  He chased after her. "Wait up!"

She kept walking.

He sighed in defeat and stopped one of the older newsies walking past with his papers. "Who was that?"

"That is one of the slickest pickpockets in New York."

"What's her name?"

The boy smiled. "You'll learn soon enough."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Chris asked as the boy walked away.

"She'll pick your pocket again once or twice before you leave, no doubt about it."

"Wonderful," Chris muttered.

Opening his wallet, he took out a couple coins and went up to the distribution counter. "I'd like some papers." The man behind the counter threw a stack of papers at him. He jumped back, startled for a second, and then grabbed the papers, scowling deeply.

"Do you even know what you are doing, kid?" Blank asked, stooping to pick up the one or two papers that Chris dropped.

He just gave Blank a very agitated look.

"Have you ever sold papers before?"

"No..." he finally grunted.

Blank rolled his eyes. "Look...kid...I don't like you very much, but I'm going to help you out a bit.  Not for you, but because Spot and Rae are good friends of mine."

"I don't really care whether or not they're good friends of yours."

Blank smacked the back of his head. "Watch the way you talk to me."

"Hey!" he yelped, rubbing his head.

"You sass me again, and I'll hit you again. And next time I might not go so easy on you."

With a sigh, Chris resorted to just glaring at him again.

"Now pick up those papers you just dropped and follow me.  Watch carefully, because I really don't feel like having to explain everything in detail."

Snatching up the papers, he stalked after Blank.

* * *

Julie sat on the window seat in her room, staring out into the yard where Spot was playing with the twins.  She missed her brother, and half regretted her decision to stay here without him. What was the longest they had been separated? A few hours, perhaps? No longer than a day.... And who knew when he'd come home? She sighed deeply. For as much as they bickered, she really did love him.  After all, he was probably the only family she had left.

She glanced at the door for a second. 'Should I ask to go to Brooklyn?' Then she frowned. Yes, she missed him, but she didn't like the way he acted.... and if she went to Brooklyn to stay with him, it would probably just encourage his behavior, not correct it.

She sighed and leaned her head against the cool windowpanes. A few moments later a knock sounded on the door.

She lifted her head from the window. "Yes?"

The door opened and Rae stuck her head in. "Are you alright?"

She smiled and gave a little nod. "Yes, just thinking is all."

Rae gave her a slight smile. "You look tired."

"I guess I am, a little."

"Why don't you take a nap?  We don't want you getting sick."

"I've tried," she admitted. "I just don't think I'm THAT tired."

"I'll bring you a book if you would like."

Julie smiled faintly. "That'd be nice."

Rae smiled. "I know I probably say this a lot, but thanks for all that you've done around here."

She nodded and smiled a little more. "I'm glad I can help."

"I'll be right back with a book. You just stay up here and rest."

"Yes ma'am."

* * *

Chris stumbled wearily into the Brooklyn lodging house and collapsed onto the worn couch.  After lugging that stack of papers all over Brooklyn he wasn't sure that he could take another step, much less climb the stairs to the bunkroom.

"Just think," Blank said, strolling in after him. "You've still got evening papers to sell."

"Count me out," Chris grumbled.

"Mm, not if you want to eat, sell papes the next day, and have a place to sleep."

"But I'm too tired to move," Chris whined.

"Tough."

Chris groaned loudly, but didn't move

"Life ain't so easy out here, is it, kid?"

"You got that right."

"Kinda makes you miss what you had back home, don't it?"

"Everything but that tyrant."

"So you say."

"You don't understand, Blank. You never lived there."

"No... you don't understand. You think Spot is bad?" He snorted. "Trying living with him before his accident. When I went to visit y'all, I was stunned to see how much he had changed- improved, even."

Chris sent him a questioning look. "What do you mean?"

"Before his accident, he was the cockiest jerk in Brooklyn. Everyone was afraid of him. Well, except Rae, because she was as bad as he was sometimes...."

"That I can't imagine," Chris snorted.

"Because you're a selfish brat, that's why."

"Watch it," Chris said, sitting up.

"Are you telling me what to do?" Blank towered over him.

"No one calls me a selfish brat."

"I just did."

Chris jumped to his feet, his weariness forgotten. "Take it back!"

"You can't take back the truth, kid. Sometimes the truth hurts, ya know."

"I'm not a selfish brat!" Chris roared.

Blank made a tut-tut sound. "From what I've seen you are."

Chris growled and swung his fist at Blank. He grabbed the boy's fist before it struck, and punched him hard in the gut. Chris gasped for air as he doubled over.

"Want to try that again?" Blank asked.

He merely croaked and shook his head.

"I let you off easy that time. Try something like that again and I won't go so easy on you."

He groaned, curling his arm around his stomach, and he rose to his feet. 

"Time to go, kid."

"Already?" he moaned.

"Normally I don't take the time to come back between editions."

"You're crazy."

"No...just trying to survive, kid, just trying to survive."

He sighed heavily, thumping wearily after Blank.

"You'll get used to it in a couple of days."

He just gave him a look and kept on trudging.

* * *

Rae stood on the porch, leaning against the railing.  It was rare that she had a few quiet minutes to just sit and enjoy her surroundings.  She loved to go stand out on the porch and watch the sunrise or set, but with three active children, a crawler and a newborn in the house, quiet just didn't happen until they were all asleep in their beds at night.

But for once, she was enjoying a quite afternoon. Sam was fast asleep, and Spot had taken the children on a walk, because they were itching to do some exploring.

As much as she was enjoying this, she was dreading having to go into the house and get started on dinner. Slowly, she rose to her feet and then paused. Dinner could wait a little while longer.

A pair of hands covered her eyes, "Guess who?" She grabbed the hands from her eyes and turned. "Hey sweetheart," Spot said, kissing her.

"Back already?" she asked, kissing him back.

"Kendra was sleeping and the twins wanted to go see the cow."

She laughed faintly. "What they like about that cow so much, I don't think I'll ever know."

He wrapped his arms around her. "What were you thinking about?"

"Just about how nice the quiet was... and how much I didn't want to start cooking dinner..."

"Probably wishing that I never insisted on teaching you to cook, right?"

She smiled. "Along those lines."

He sighed and stared off into the distance. 

She looked at him curiously. "What's the matter?"

"I was thinking about how much better off you would be if you hadn't married you. You wouldn't be playing mommy to five children. And you wouldn't be tied to a monster like me for the rest of your life."

She gave a VERY exasperated sigh. "Spot, how many times have we gone over this? I love the children and I. Love. YOU."

He didn't hear her. "You don't deserve to live out here away from town and from all your friends because of my face..."

"Will you stop complaining about your stupid face already?!"

His jaw dropped and he blinked.

She folded her arms over her chest and gave him a very stern look. "All you do is complain about it. And I am tired of it!"

He stared at her in shock for a moment before responding. "FINE! You won't have to listen to it anymore!" he yelled, storming off the porch and into the woods.

"FINE!" she yelled back, not wanting him to have the last word.

Ann and Andy ran out onto the porch.  "Where's Daddy?" Ann asked.

With an agitated sigh, she thrust her hand out, pointing across the field and stalked into the house.

Andy looked to where Rae had pointed and then at the door that Rae had just slammed. "Wonder what's wrong with Momma," he mused.

Ann shrugged. "I dunno..."

Rae stormed up the stairs to check on Sam.  She knelt next to his cradle and sighed.

"What am I going to do?" she murmured, stroking her baby's face gently. "Your daddy can be... such a... such a... something unpleasant... sometimes."

He opened his eyes and stared up at her.  She sighed, "Looking at you is like looking at him...before..."

She leaned over and kissed him gently on the head. "You think after all this time, he'd get a little less thickheaded and listen when I WANT him too..." Sam just stared at her, wide-eyed.

Ann crept in and buried her face in Rae's shoulder sobbing.

This startled Rae from her one-sided conversation. "Annie? What's wrong sweetie?"

"Daddy just came in and he yelled at me and Andy...and he locked himself in the study."

"Shhh..." Gently, she stroked Ann's hair. "It's okay... Daddy... he's just... in a bad mood." Kind of like the one she was in, but she had managed NOT to snap at the children.

Rae sighed.  "Let's go cook dinner alright? Maybe that will put Daddy in a better mood."

Ann sniffled and nodded. "Okay..."

* * *

"Blank?" Chris asked his selling partner.

He gave a slightly agitated sigh and said "What?" But in truth... he was sort of getting used to the brat.

"What was Spot like...before...you know..."

"Well," Blank began thoughtfully. "He was... arrogant. A lot of girls liked him, so no wonder. Kind of a bully sometimes. He was in control here. Him and Hades... He was pretty much as bad as Hades, in fact."

"He's pretty bad now, but I couldn't imagine him as bad as Hades."

He smirked to himself. "On occasion, he could be worse. But that was rare."

Chris snickered.  "What about Rae? Was she as bad as Spot or Hades?"

"Mm.... in her own way. Her and Spot butted heads on many occasions."

"I can't imagine that."

"Yep. Well, when I saw them all lovey, dovey married, THAT was hard to imagine."

"I don't think I've seen them mad at each other for more than five minutes."

"Oh, it used to go on longer than that, my friend... I think their longest was... maybe a month?"

Chris' eyebrows raised. "What could have kept them mad at each other THAT long?"

"Well... it was over the dumbest thing... It was over a marble. He claimed she stole it, she claimed he lied, and.... well... it just wouldn't end."

Chris laughed. "I guess it's a good thing they've changed, huh?"

Blank nodded, handing off a newspaper to an old man. "Otherwise I think they'd kill one another."

Chris turned and silently contemplated all that he had just learned, as he continued to sell his papers

* * *

Dinner didn't go quite as well as Rae thought.

The roast was not quite done enough and the biscuits were a little dark. Spot had come out of the study for dinner, but he had been sullen throughout the meal, snapping at everyone from Rae to Kendra.  He had even made several comments about the food and it was all Rae could do not to snap back or burst into tears.

"I'll clean up for you," Julie offered, when Spot left the table after making a snide comment about the slightly undercooked potatoes.

"Thanks Julie," Rae said, picking up Kendra who had managed to get the potatoes everywhere, including her hair.

With a small sigh, she took the happily chattering girl to the bathroom and proceeded to clean her up.

Rae sighed. "Maybe I shouldn't have said those mean things to Daddy."

She scrubbed soap through Kendra's hair. "But he really should stop thinking I shouldn't love him because of a few scars... It makes me so mad that he seems to think it's the only thing I care about!"

Kendra chattered happily.

"Maybe I should go in there and make him listen to me." She smiled softly at Kendra. "What do you think? Should I go talk to him?"

Kendra mumbled something and rubbed her eyes sleepily.

"Well, I think a little someone needs to go to bed." Rae carried the now clean girl up the stairs and rather than putting her down in the girls' room, she took her into the master bedroom and lay down next to her on the bed.

Being Mrs. Spot Conlon sure got tough every now and again.

She struggled to keep her eyes open, knowing that she should go talk to Spot, but it was a useless struggle, for sleep soon overcame her.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5:**

"UP AND AT 'EM!" bellowed Hades, walking around the boys' bunkroom. 

Chris groaned and crawled from his bunk.  He had been here two weeks already, but he still wasn't used to the early mornings. He was a bit relieved when a few other newsboys didn't seem to be either.

"Get a move on it, kid," Blank said, shoving his bunkmate toward the washroom.

"Hey, hey, watch it," he grumbled, jerking his undershirt around. Somehow, during the night, it had turned backwards on him.

"Watch how you talk to me, boy!"

He sighed. "All I said was watch it! I wouldn't think you'd like being shoved around either!"

"I don't like being shoved around and the last person who did, ended up in bed for two weeks."

"Well, I don't like it either." But he wasn't about to try his luck beating Blank up. He tried sometime the week before, and it landed him with two black eyes, a bloody nose, and a lot of scratches.

"You're looking a little green, Chris," Molly said with a smirk as she met up with Chris and her brother at the bottom of the stairs.

Again, he sighed, but otherwise kept quiet.

"Lighten up, Chris. I was just teasing," Molly said.

"I never can tell with anyone anymore."

She rolled her eyes.  "So when are you going home?"

He shrugged. "Probably never. They probably forgot I'm here."

"I somehow doubt that."

"I don't know..."

"You never did tell me why you got sent here in the first place."

He reddened, a bit embarrassed. "I'm not totally sure... I guess irresponsibility. ... That, and I don't get on well with Spot."

"If you two tried a little harder you would get along fine...Just look at me and Rae...we used to butt heads something awfully those first few weeks I was there."

"But Rae is easier to get along with," he pointed out.

Blank snickered. "So you think.  You haven't gotten on her bad side yet."

"I probably don't want to either..." he admitted.

"It would be a good idea not to get on her bad side."

"Trust him," Molly said. "I was on her bad side for a little while...."

"Will you two be alright selling by yourselves for the day? I have some things to take care of." Blank said.

Molly and Chris looked at one another and then at Blank.

"I suppose so," Chris said.

Molly nodded.

"You do anything to my sister, kid, and I will soak you," Blank threatened.

"I'm not gonna do anything to her, jeez!" Chris exclaimed.

"I still don't trust you, kid."

He gave an annoyed sigh. "Then why have us sell together?"

"Because I don't trust her alone either."

"Andrew!" Molly hissed.

"What? I don't."

She growled in frustration and stalked off.

"I see the resemblance in you two now," Chris commented, heading off after her.

* * *

Spot stood in the doorway of the room where Rae was sleeping, watching as the early morning sun cast shadows upon her.   He couldn't believe that she had said that to him.  But it only proved that what he thought was true.  She didn't really look past the scars.

She rolled onto her side and buried her face in her pillow. He sighed heavily. He never would have thought she'd think that way... but... well, she did, apparently. How many times had she said that she didn't care about the scars? Lies! All of them. How could she sleep knowing she told him such tales? Didn't the guilt weigh her down? Or had being a newsie in New York make her immune to the consequences of lying?

Kendra sat up and rubbed her eyes.  She caught sight of him and smiled. "Daddy!" she exclaimed, reaching for him.  He quickly turned and disappeared back down the stairs, as her cries filled the air.

Rae stirred and opened one eye sleepily. "Whadizzit?" she murmured, looking at Kendra. "What's the matter, sweetie?"

"Daddy," she sobbed, pointing to the door.

She rubbed her eyes and looked at the door. No one was there. "Do you want Daddy?" she asked.

Kendra nodded as huge tears rolled down her cheeks.

Rae stifled a yawn and picked her up. "Come on then."

She carried her downstairs and knocked on the door to the study. "Spot?"

He replied with a gruff "what?"

Rae shifted Kendra onto her hips. "Kendra's crying for you."

"Well, what do you want me to do?"

She sighed. "Will you please try to calm her down?"

"Won't my freakish face just scare her more?"

Frustrated, Rae set Kendra on the floor next to the study door and ran back upstairs. Kendra opened her mouth and wailed loudly, plopping onto the floor.

After a few moments, Spot threw the door open, ready to yell at Rae, but found only the baby girl sitting on the floor screaming. She simply lifted her hands and made grabbing motions at him, bawling. He picked her up and held her close. Boy was he going to give Rae a piece of his mind later. She buried her face in his shoulder and whimpered, sniffling.

While he really wanted to get as far away from Rae as possible, he wasn't about to leave these kids. They deserved a momma and a daddy, even if they weren't speaking to each other. "It's okay," he murmured, patting her head gently.

After another moment or two, her whimpers became hiccups as she fell back asleep. He stood holding her, not certain what to do with her. He couldn't just keep her in his arms all morning until she woke up again. 

He finally carried her into the living room and left her sleeping on the couch, before he locked himself in the study again.

Back up in her room, Rae laid in bed, staring at the ceiling for what felt like an eternity, waiting for sleep to come. But come, it wouldn't, and she finally decided to get up.

She reached into the wardrobe for a dress and pulled out the green dress that she had worn the first day they found the house.  That was the first time Spot had told her she looked pretty. With a strangled sob, she threw the dress across the room and reached for a pair of pants instead.

She wrestled into them and shrugged on an old blouse. Yanking her hair into a braid, she headed downstairs to start breakfast, trying to forget their argument.

* * *

Molly walked slightly ahead of Chris as they sold their papers.  She turned around to talk to him. "I've been in New York for almost two months now and I haven't seen anything besides Brooklyn."

"Well, Brooklyn can't be ALL that great..."

"I want to go to Coney Island...or Sheepshead..."

"Why don't we?"

"You mean it?" she exclaimed happily.

Chris shrugged. "I don't think it'd hurt anyone... and they can't MAKE us stay in the area..."

"Right...so where to?"

He shrugged. "You've been here longer than me. You decide."

"Umm....Sheepshead...no wait...Coney Island!"

"All right then, Coney Island here we come."

* * *

Ann crept down the stairs and made her way into the kitchen.  She snuck up behind Rae and wrapped her arms around Rae's legs. "Mornin' Momma."

"Morning, Annie," she said wearily, cracking some eggs into a frying pan.

Ann frowned slightly. "Is Daddy still in a bad mood?"

With a sigh, she gave a little nod. "He seems to be that way." Ann's frown became a pout and she sat on a chair at the table. "What's the matter?"

"I don't want Daddy to be in a bad mood. He won't play with me and Andy when he's in a bad mood."

Rae stabbed at the eggs. "Maybe he'll feel better later?"

Ann sighed. "I hope so."

"Me too."

"Will you go check on Sam for me?" Rae asked.

She nodded and headed out of the room.

Rae sighed and went back to her breakfast preparations. "I hope we settle this soon."

A moment later, Julie joined her. "I think something is burning," she murmured drowsily.

"Shoot..." Rae muttered, tossing the pan of burning eggs into the sink and dumping water on them.

Julie rubbed her eyes and seemed to gain a little more consciousness. "Want any help?"

"No, thanks. I think I can burn breakfast on my own."

She frowned. ".... All right."

Rae sighed. "I'm sorry, Julie.  I'm just a little frustrated."

She nodded a little.

"Do you mind taking over? I think I want to start this day all over again."

"Sure."

"Thanks," Rae muttered, leaving the room.

With a frown, Julie began breakfast again. Whatever was going on between Rae and Spot was starting to put pressure on the odd family. She only hoped it would be resolved soon.

* * *

Molly looked around at the unfamiliar buildings. "Where are we?"

Chris gave her a look. "I thought we were heading to Coney Island..."

"This is the way that the cab driver said to go..."

"Something tells me he didn't know or just lied to us."

Molly shivered in the lengthening shadows. "I don't like the looks of this."

"I'll protect you," he assured her bravely, but he wasn't so sure himself.

"I wish Blank was here," she whispered, wrapping her arms around herself.

"Hey... I said I could protect you..." He felt a little braver as a bit of annoyance bubbled up about the mention of Blank.

"The same way you protected Kendra?" she retorted.

"It wasn't my fault!... Not totally anyway..." He gave a frustrated grunt and resorted to scowling.

"I got a letter from Julie, Chris! She told me that you were supposed to have been watching Kendra that day!"

"Well it's not like I planned for her to fall!" he exclaimed. "Besides, what would you care? You gave her up anyhow? How responsible is that?"

Tears filled Molly's eyes. "I gave her up because I knew that I couldn't give her everything she needed."

With a sigh, he crammed his hands into his pockets and trudged ahead, saying no more on the subject. 

Molly ran to catch up with him. "Please don't leave me," she whispered.

"Wouldn't you rather be with Blank?" he grumbled, still a bit stung.

"Yes, but he's not here right now."

Stopping, he frowned. "Well.... why don't we just retrace our steps. Go the way we came?"

"Do you think we can find our way back?"

"Uh..." He shrugged. "I'm not sure... maybe?"

She sat down on a doorstep and wrapped her arms around herself again. "I'm cold....and hungry."

"Well... I've got fifteen cents on me..."

She sighed. "And I have about 15 papers left to sell."

            "Maybe we could sell the rest and stop at one of the vendors?"

"I guess we could."

"Unless you have a better idea."

"Going home would be a better idea, but since we're not exactly sure which way that is...I guess it will have to do."

He sighed. "Well, I said earlier we could try to retrace our steps..."

"Andrew's going to kill me," she muttered, sitting down on the curb.

"You mean me. You're related to him. He hates my guts," Chris muttered, sitting next to her.

"He'll blame you for this...and probably try to kill you...but he was just starting to trust me."

That certainly wasn't any comfort, but he wasn't going to voice his opinion, because he was pretty sure it would come right back around and bite him in the butt some day in the near future.

"It's way too quiet around here," she mused

Frowning, he glanced around a bit and then nodded. "Yes..."

"What do we have here?" a deep voice said from behind them.

With a start, Chris and Molly jerked around. Five men towered over them, some holding knifes, others ropes or chains. For a moment, they were motionless, slack-jawed, as they stared at these creepy people.

"Looks like we got some of those scrawny newsies," one of the men said.

The man with chains snapped his and glared at them menacingly. "Don'cha know to stay in your own territories, brats?"

"We didn't mean any harm mister," Molly said, shrinking closer to Chris.

"You're a newsie, ain't ya? That's harm enough," growled another.

"I'm not a newsie," Chris said defiantly, jumping to his feet.

"Yeah, and I'm the Queen of England." He rolled his eyes. "Carney, Dwarf- Get 'em!"

Molly tried to dart away, but the biggest of the men grabbed her around the waist.

She shrieked loudly kicking wildly about and managing to land one kick in his knee.

"Dwarf! Get that girl under control! Now!" the leader yelled as two other men, struggled to hold Chris captive.

"I'm tryin'!" he croaked, trying also not to fall over and nurse his injured knee.

The leader rolled his eyes. "Let's get these two spies to the Duchess."

Molly squeaked and thrashed about again as Chris only gave the men a puzzled look. They were going to see royalty?

  



	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6:**

Rae sat at the table staring at her plate of food.  Three days.  Three miserable days. Three long days since she and Spot had exchanged words.  She was beginning to regret what she said, even if she had been right.

Besides, she hadn't meant to offend him. She was trying to tell him that his face didn't matter. And... yes, she was tired of hearing him complain about it, because she had long since saw past it. It was his fault for blowing it out of proportion... Though she supposed she could have had a more tactful way of saying it.

With a heavy sigh, she poked her fork at the potatoes steeped in congealing gravy. After picking at her food for a few more minutes she stood and carried her plate to the kitchen, having lost all appetite

Already, Julie was in the kitchen, cleaning up. "Thank you so much for your help," Rae wearily said to her.

Julie looked at her plate, "Did you eat any of that, or just push it around on your plate?"

"I tried to eat it," she supplied helpfully.

Julie shook her head, but said nothing.

With a frown, she began to help Julie straighten up, scrubbing down the little stove and the countertops with more vigor than necessary.

Julie took the rag from her hands. "Go check on Sam, teach Kendra to walk or play with the twins.  Anything, but try to help me clean the kitchen."

She gave a small, wary smile. "I'm sorry... I'm just so... frustrated... I guess would be the word."

"Your frustration is getting on my nerves."

She frowned. "It can't be helped. Spot won't talk civilly to me. You'd be frustrated too."

"Have you tried telling him that you're sorry?"

"Well.... Even if I tried, he wouldn't listen. He's a stubborn old mule."

"So are you," Julie pointed out.

"That's beside the point," she muttered.

"No it's not.  I don't know what you two are fighting about, but neither of you are willing to admit that you might be wrong."

"No... the problem is he COMPLETELY misinterpreted what I said to him!"

"Have you even thought about the fact that you could have worded what you said a little bit differently?" Julie sighed. "I'm starting to sound like my aunt."

Rae sighed miserably. "I don't know...."

"Just go think about it while you put the twins to bed. It's getting late," she said, shooing Rae from the kitchen.

With a sigh, she nodded absently and went to put the children to bed. 

Later that night Spot crept up the stairs and stood in the doorway of the room he had shared with Rae up until their argument a few days earlier, watching her sleep. He leaned against the door and let his gaze drift around the room before settling on her again, as she tossed fitfully for a moment before burrowing deep under the covers. 

He had come out of the study in search of something to eat earlier and had heard the conversation between Rae and Julie.  Julie's words weighed heavy on his mind. Perhaps Julie had been right. He knew that he and Rae were stubborn. Perhaps it was time they settled their stubbornness.... He crept closer and knelt beside the bed.

Again, she shifted, as if, in her sleep, she knew he was watching.

Maybe he had misunderstood what she had been trying to say, maybe he hadn't, but he did know that he missed her greatly. And maybe... she missed him too? He reached toward her and hesitated slightly, before brushing the hair from her face.

She scrunched up her face and shifted a bit, but didn't wake up. After watching her for another moment, he leaned forward and kissed her forehead. Again, she scrunched up her face, but this time she opened her eyes and murmured a drowsy "What?"

"We need to talk," he whispered.

She was still half asleep. "Huh? Whazza.... Spot?" She stifled a yawn and struggled to sit up- not an easy feat being as drowsy as she was.

He helped her sit up and placed another pillow behind her back.

"What's going on?" she stifled a yawn. It still hadn't clicked that Spot was talking to her again.

"What did you mean the other day when you told me to stop complaining about my stupid face?"

With another yawn, she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "I was just tired of you complaining about how you thought you were some monster because of a couple scars... and I was upset that you couldn't accept the fact that I love you, scars and all."

He reached up and gently cradled her face with his hand. "I should have given you a chance to explain the other day."

She took his hand and held onto it. "Well... Perhaps saying stupid face wasn't the best way to put it..." she admitted.

"I've missed you," he whispered, taking her other hand and kissing it.

With a wavering smile, she touched the side of his face. "I've missed you too... you stubborn mule, you."

"No more stubborn than you," he whispered, kissing her.

She smiled. "No, I suppose not," she replied quietly, kissing him back.

"Move over," he said, kicking his shoes off.

With a soft laugh, she scooted over. "Not comfortable sleeping in the study?"

"I sleep better with you by my side."

With a smile, Rae snuggled close to him. "I love you, Spot."

"I love you too, sweetheart," he said, kissing her.

* * *

The thugs led Chris and Molly through a more unpleasant side of town. 'What sort of duchess would live in such dreary conditions?' Molly wondered.

They led them into a large warehouse and to one corner of the room where it appeared that a petite blond had set up court, a girl about Julie's age sitting at her feet.

"So uh... where's this Duchess?" Chris finally asked, trying to wriggle away from his greasy captors.

"You're lookin' at her," he scowled.

"What is going on here?" the blond demanded, rising to her feet.

"Found these two spies prowlin' around." The men shoved Molly and Chris at her feet.

"They'se newsies," one of the men said.

"We aren't newsies!" Chris retorted angrily.

The girl pointed to the rolled up paper sticking out of Molly's skirt. "Then what do ya call that?"

"We're just staying with some newsies right now.  Actually, we were going to be leaving town again shortly to go back and live with Spot and Rae again..." he lied

"Spot Conlon eh?" She gave a small sneer. And that's supposed to make me say okay and let you go?"

"Umm....yeah."

She gave a short laugh, and suddenly became stern. "No."

"Why not?" Molly asked.

"If I let the two of you go... companions of Spot Conlon, what do you think that would do to my reputation?"

"I'm confused," Chris muttered.

"I let you go, I will lose part of the reputation I've tried so hard to gain. Especially if I let you go to Spot. I'm going to be better than him, you see?" she explained. "I wish to be more feared than Spot Conlon hisself." She smirked. "And who will fear me if they think I've gone soft on two of his birds?"

"We aren't his birds. In case you haven't heard, he's moved clear across the state."

"Across the state or not, he still has a sort of reigning memory over New York. Everyone knows who Spot Conlon is. Everyone fears him. And I will not rest until it is ME they are afraid of!" she insisted, slamming her fist on her rickety desk with some sort of defiance.

"What are you going to do to us?" Molly asked.

"Well, considering I hadn't expected your arrival, I'll have to think about it." She drummed her fingers on the desk for a moment. "Take them upstairs and tie them up."

"Tie...?" Molly croaked as the men hauled her and Chris up the stairs. Once upstairs one of the men threw Molly to the floor, causing her to land awkwardly on her shoulder.

"Ow!" she yelped.

"Hey!" Chris yelled. "Can't you be a little nicer to her?!"

Carney backhanded the boy. "Shut up."

He glared at the man with the corner of his mouth bleeding a slight bit. "I'd like to see you make me."

He pulled a filthy cloth from his pocket and stuffed it in Chris' mouth.

"Well, that was effective," Molly murmured. He gave her a dirty look. "Sorry, sorry."

As soon as the ropes were tight around their wrists the men left.

"A fine mess we got ourselves into," she commented.

Chris replied with a series of muffled grunts.

"Lean down and maybe I can get that thing untied."

Chris did as told.

After several minutes of work, Molly was finally able to unknot the filthy cloth. "My fingers hurt," she whispered.

"They're bleeding a little," Chris replied.

She looked at them and frowned. "You know... I thought coming here would be nice... I could spend time with my brother and sister... I didn't expect to be kidnapped by a group of thugs and held hostage by their crazy ... leader, who, for some reason, hates Spot..."

"I'm suddenly wishing I could go back to Pleasant Valley and forget this whole nightmare even happened."

She looked at him. "Kinda makes you think that maybe Spot wasn't so bad after all."

"I guess not."

She shifted her weight a bit. "Maybe we can reason with that girl in the morning... Surely she'll understand we're just two kids who want to get home and be safe... I'm still hungry.... You don't think she'll hurt us, do you?"

"I sure hope not. I guess we'll know for sure if they feed us."

She frowned. "I hope they do."

"I wonder what you're brother is thinking about now?"

"He's probably worried out of his mind..."

"Do you think he'll figure out to look for us here?"

"I don't know... I didn't even know anything about this until just now..." She shrugged. "He may know more than he told me... I don't know..."

"Are you about to cry?"

"Maybe..."

"Here," he said, handing her the filthy rag.

She took it between her bound hands and awkwardly dabbed her face. "Thanks."

"Just trying to keep you from crying all over me."

She made a face at him. "You're real kind..."

"I try."

She rolled her eyes.

He leaned back against the wall. "May as well get comfortable...I'm thinking we are going to be here for a long time."

"I think you might be right..." she agreed with a frown.

Julie sat up suddenly in her bed.  Something was wrong, but she couldn't quite figure out what it was.

Climbing out of bed, she checked Ann. The little girl was sound asleep. Maybe Andy? Turning to the other side of the room, where Ann's brother slept for the time being, she saw that he too was fine. Perhaps it was Kendra or Sam?... Maybe Spot or Rae? She stepped out of her room and paused near their door. Not a sound... What was it then?

With a sigh she headed downstairs to the kitchen. Maybe a glass of warm milk would help her go back to sleep. She pulled out a pan and some milk, set the pan on the stove, filled it with milk, and began to warm it up. Maybe she was just getting paranoid...

Spot stumbled sleepily into the room. "Julie? What are you doing up?" he asked.

"I couldn't sleep... Something was bothering me... but I don't know what..."

"Got enough for two," he asked, nodding toward the pot.

She poured a little more milk into the pan. "Now I do..." She glanced at him. "Have you and Rae made up?"

He nodded, "A couple of hours ago," he said, digging in the cabinets.  "Where does Rae keep the chocolate?"

"The cabinet to your left. Second shelf."

"Thanks. Want to add some to your milk?"

After a moment, she nodded. "Sure... warm milk doesn't taste so great by itself anyway."

He stirred some chocolate flakes into the milk.  "Want to talk about it?" he asked, pulling two cups from the cabinet.

She shrugged. "I would... if I really had anything to talk about... I  mean... I just... felt... something happened. Maybe it was just from a dream..."

"Could it be your father? Or Chris?"

After a long pause, she nodded. "It could be... I think it's Chris, now that you mention it..."

He nodded thoughtfully.

She stirred the hot chocolate slowly. "When is he going to come back?"

"That's up to him, Julie.  When he proves to me that he can be responsible, I'll let him come back."

"But how will you know, all the way out here?"

"I sent a letter to Blank and told him to keep me informed."

Slowly, she nodded. Pulling the saucepan off the stove, she took two cups and filled them with the hot chocolate. 

"Let's take these to the living room.  The couch will be more comfortable than these chairs."

Holding the cup in both hands, she followed him. "I miss him... even if he was a pain in the butt..."

Spot sat on one end of the couch. "Was Chris close to your father?"

She nodded a bit. "We both were... but perhaps he was a little more than I was..."

"I'm trying to understand him, but I'm not having much luck."

Julie shrugged a bit. "He gets this way every now and then, since we last saw our father... Not usually this bad... but I have seen him sort of behave... absent-mindedly every now and then."

"Everyone slips up once in a while, but his irresponsibility was getting out of hand."

She nodded. "Yes... even for Chris, it was bad."

They sat in silence for a few moments before Spot spoke again. "Julie, do you think you could watch all the kids for me for a couple of hours tomorrow?"

After a pause, she nodded. "Are you and Rae going out?"

"I want to take her down to the little cabin for a while.  But I want to surprise her, so don't say anything."

Julie smiled faintly and nodded. "All right."

He leaned his head against the back of the couch. "It's hard to believe that it's almost been a year since that shipwreck."

"A year?" Julie looked up and sighed. "I actually forgot about that...." She laughed. "Amazing, how I'd forget..."

"Kendra will be one in another month or so."

She whistled low. "And Chris and I will have lived with you a year... it seems almost like we always have lived here..."

"Rae and I have been here just over a year, but like you, it seems like forever."

"How long have you and Rae known each other?"

"Forever.....I think were met when we were eight or nine..."

"Wow... That's a long time!" 

"It wasn't until three or four years ago that we got along."

She grinned. "Well, I'll say that I thought so... just by the way you two act sometimes..."

"We both almost got thrown into the House of Refuge the day we met."

"The what?"

"It's a jail...for kids."

She tilted her head to the side. "You two were almost thrown in jail??"

"It was all her fault," he said with a smirk.

With a laugh, Julie said, "And I'll bet she'll say the exact opposite?"

"Of course."

She grinned. "What happened?"

_Young Spot Conlon walked down the streets of Brooklyn trying his hardest to yell out the headlines over the din of the noon day crowd.  He had to sell all of his papers, or he wouldn't have anything to eat tonight and he'd be stuck sleeping in an alley.  That's what two weeks of bad headlines had done to his meager savings._

_His voice was already getting scratchy, and he hadn't even sold half of his papers yet. And it was hot. And it was sticky. And he was starving._

_The next thing he knew he was on the ground, his papers getting trampled into the dirt by the passing crowd._

_He moved to get up, but the person who had obviously knocked him over, shoved him back down as she used him to get back up on her own feet. "Hey! Watch it!"_

_"Watch it yourself, shorty.  You got in my way." She snapped at him._

_"You shoulda watched where you were going! And who are you calling shorty?! You're shorter than me!"_

_"I was running from a very angry baker and his very angry wife...I didn't have time to look where I was going," she yelled, pushing her long tangled hair out of her face._

_"Well take the time to look next time, why don'cha?! Ya just made me lose my entire day's pay!"_

_She pushed him. "You just made me loose my breakfast!" she yelled pointing to where a small dog was now eating the sweet roll that she had dropped. "I hadn't eaten in two days!"_

_"I hadn't eaten in four!" Well, that was a lie... more like three, but who was counting?_

_"Oh blah...at least you have a job, unlike some people," she said, dusting off her clothes._

_"Then why don't you get one, eh?"_

_"I tried that...but that stupid man down at the distribution center said that selling newspapers wasn't a job for little girls. No one wants to hire girls, 'cept the sweatshops and I ain't about to go there."_

_"Then that's YOUR fault, ain't it?" Spot said smugly, as he walked off._

_"There she IS! STOP THEIF!"_

_"Fudge," she muttered, shoving Spot out of her way as she ran away from the baker, the baker's wife and three very round bulls._

_He sneered after her and then snickered at the people chasing her. Seeing that now smushed sweet roll on the ground made him hungrier than ever. Perhaps he had enough for a small bite to eat. He reached into his pocket and pulled out six pennies. "... Wait a minute. I had eight!"_

_With a growl he took off after the girl.  She may be able to get away from the bulls, but she'd never get away from him. No one stole from Spot Conlon and got away with it._

_It wasn't too hard to track where the girl had headed, as her pursuers had made a nice line after her, according to who was faster. Obviously, the girl won out._

_Her pursuers stopped on the docks, confused. The girl had disappeared. After a moment they walked away and a little head peeked up over the edge. The girl breathed a sigh of relief until a hand clapped on her shoulder from behind. "Gotcha!"_

_"Let me go, ya muttonhead!" She yelled, squirming and trying to get away from her captor._

_"Gimme back the money you stole from me!"_

_"I didn't steal your money!"_

_"I had eight pennies before you ran into me and now I only have six! So give it back!"_

_She spun around and punched him hard in the stomach. "I didn't take your stupid money."_

_Spot doubled over, choking. "You" cough "did so!"_

_She stuck her hands in her pockets and pulled out nothing but some lint. "See! Nothing!"_

_He pushed her back. "What about your shoes? Or socks? Ya know, girls got lots of places to hide things."_

_She took off her ratty shoes and socks. "Happy?"_

_"No... 'Cause I still think you took them!"_

_"I'd love to stay and chat, but if you don't mind, I'm going to try to steal me some more breakfast since you ruined my first one."_

_"See! You are a thief!" He grabbed her arm and yanked her back._

_She punched him again. "Don't touch me."_

_He shoved her back. "Nobody hits Spot Conlon!"_

_"Who do you think you are? The King of Brooklyn?" she snickered._

_He gave her a once over. "As much as you are the pauper of it!"_

_"I enjoy my life, thank you very much. And if you will let go of my arm, I'll be on my way."_

_"I don't think so. Give me my money!"_

_She threw up her hands and growled. "How many times do I have to tell you? I don't have your stupid pennies. I go for the bigger coins."_

_"Yeah, I'd believe that except you said you didn't eat for days, and a penny will buy ya a little something. Two will buy ya a little something more."_

_"And a nickel buys a whole lot more."_

_"And that's supposed to mean to me...?"_

_"If you let me go I can go steal myself a nickel or two and get some food!"_

_"Oh, so you're gonna rob another newsie now?!"_

_"I don't rob newsies! Only the hoity-toitys."_

_He narrowed his eyes and gave her a hard glare. "Oh. That so, eh?"_

_"Will you just leave me alone? I was doing just fine without you in my life."_

_Shoving her one last time, he glared at her. "I catch you stealing from me again, you'll be sorry."_

_"You cause me to lose my breakfast and again and YOU'LL be sorry."_

_"Oh yeah? You think you can threaten me... .... ... who are you?"_

_"Rae Kelly of course," she replied saucily, before running from the docks._

_"Kelly... I didn't know Jack had a sister...?"_

_She stopped and turned around. "Don't know any Jack...and I'm an only child...my parents left me out here a few years back...."_

_"That so, eh?"_

_"Don't start that again."_

_"Start what?" he asked smugly._

_"Next thing you'll be telling me that I'm not a throw away and that I have a brother."_

_"What makes you think I'm wrong? I could very well be right, ya know."_

_Rae threw her hands up in the air and looked up at the sky as if to ask 'Why me?'_

_Spot smirked, leaning against the crates on the dock._

_"See you around, shorty," Rae said, walking away once again._

_"WHO'RE YOU CALLIN' SHORT?!" he roared defensively. He was eight years old for goodness sake! He still had room to grow, or so he was told._

Spot glanced down at Julie. She had fallen asleep leaning against his shoulder.

With a smile, he protested quietly, "Hey, I didn't think it was that boring..."

She sighed in her sleep.

Patting her head gently, Spot slowly eased up and lowered her onto the couch, drawing a throw over her. Then he turned and went back to bed.

Rae rolled over when he crawled back in the bed. "Something wrong?" she asked, sleepily.

He shook his head, kissing her forehead. "No, Julie just couldn't sleep well."

"Is she sleeping now?"

He laughed a bit. "Yes... I think I bored her to death telling her the story of how we met." 

She smiled and snuggled up against him. "That was quite a meeting."

"Indeed it was." He smiled, putting his arm around her. "And I hadn't even gotten to the best part yet, either... I don't suppose I have the knack for storytelling just yet."

"You ought to have plenty of time to work on it."

"I'd better," he replied with a grin.

She smiled. "Tell me about our second run-in."

"Mm, you need a good sleeping aid too now?" he teased.

She nodded and poked him in the ribs. "Tell me a story, Daddy,"

He laughed. "Mmm... the second time we met... start me off, I don't know if I remember when the second time was."

"I seem to remember you attacking me from behind and accusing me of picking you pocket again."

"Was that the second? I thought that was ...." He shrugged and laughed again.

_It wasn't even a week after his first run-in with Rae Kelly, when Spot ran into her again. Or... she had ran into him, again. "Hey! Don'cha learn! Watch. Where. You're. Goin'!" he yelled when she bumped into him, walking by._

_She ignored him and kept on walking._

_He sneered but didn't run after her. He was on his way to lunch and didn't have time. He had saved up a lot this time to get a really good meal. He crammed his fingers into his pockets as he approached a small cafe and frowned when again he came up several coins short. "That girl...." he growled._

_He turned and ran after her, shoving her hard when he caught up to her._

_She shrieked in surprise, tumbling forward, and then whirled around. "YOU! What do you want?!"_

_"Give me my money back!" he demanded._

_"What?" She gave an exasperated sigh. "I don't HAVE your money!"_

_"You bumped into again and I had more money disappear. YOU took my money."_

_"What makes you think I took it?! Why don't you check your pockets? Maybe you got a hole in 'em or something."_

_"There ain't no hole in my pockets," he growled._

_"You didn't even check, you big muttonhead..."_

_He grabbed her shirt. "Just give me my money."_

_"Let me go! I don't have it!" She kicked him hard in the shin. "Let GO!"_

_He let go of her and grabbed his shin. "Are you really so hungry that you would take to stealing from a newsie?"_

_"I'm not stealin' from you!"_

_"But you are hungry enough to right?"_

_She remained quiet. She wasn't going to give him the satisfaction._

_"If I buy you a couple of papes will you sell them and leave me alone? For good?"_

_"I don't need your help!"_

_"Come  on," he said, grabbing her hand._

_He led her to the distribution center, where he used the last ten pennies in his pocket to buy her some papes. "Now get lost," he said, shoving the papers at her._

_She rolled her eyes, lugging the papers away from the distribution office._

_She stopped and put her papers on a crate and began flipping through the one on top.  After a moment she picked up her papers and walked down the street, not noticing that Spot was following her. "MAYOR HIT BY RUNAWAY BUGGY!" she yelled._

_He paused and sneered. That headline wouldn't... sell... a thing... He watched as two older women approached and bought a newspaper. "Well..."_

_When she sold two more papers using the same headline he walked up behind her. "What page is that article on?" he asked._

_She turned and smirked at him. "Page nine."_

_He flipped open the newspaper and scanned the articles. Nothing remotely of the sort, except for a picture of the mayor standing in front of a buggy, shaking hands with the driver. "Where is it?"_

_"Right there," she said, pointing to the picture as she yelled out the headline again._

_"He's not getting hit by no buggy, you bonehead!"_

_She clamped her hand over his mouth. "Don't tell them that you idiot!" she hissed._

_He jerked his head back. "They'll find out you lied once they open the pape up. What'cha gonna do then, when they chase after ya, huh?"_

_"I don't plan on sticking around long enough to find out," she said, walking away._

_"One of these days, you'll get caught, ya know. An' someone ain't gonna like it."_

_She shrugged. "It ain't really lyin' anyway...just improvin' the truth a little."_

_"That's one heck of an improvement..."_

_"Hold these for me for a minute will ya?" she asked, shoving all but one of her papers at him._

_He stumbled backwards from her push and was about to retort rudely, but she had walked off, forcing him to save it until later. He watched as she walked up to a grumpy old man that he had attempted to sell a paper to earlier that day. 'Ha,' he thought. 'She thinks he's gonna buy anything from 'er?'_

_"Buy a pape, mister," he could hear her whisper._

_Folding his arms over his chest, Spot observed, smirking._

_The older man shook his head.  Spot watched as tears began to fill her eyes and he had to strain to hear her words. "Please, sir...my brother is sick and the doctor said that he will die without medicine.  My daddy is dead and my momma can't work...please, sir, buy my last pape..." she begged._

_Spot gave her a skeptical look. "Puh-lease!" he muttered to himself._

_To his amazement the man reached into his pocket and handed her a coin._

_She took it carefully and handed him a paper. "Thank you sir," she gasped, all choked up. Once the man left she walked back over to Spot, a victorious smirk on her face._

_"I... what... you... that was so dumb! What, did you have a plan with that guy already?! How could he fall for that! It was SO obvious you were acting..." he sputtered._

_"Never seen him before.  Hoity-toity's are easy to con," she said, taking her papers and walking away._

_He ran after her, "Where did you learn that stuff?"_

_"Just from some fella who had a real hoity toity name himself... Francis Sullivan, I think it is."_

_Spot gave her a funny look. "Well...I guess I'll see ya around, kid," he said, wanting to get as far away from as possible as quickly as he could._

_Rae simply shrugged and went on with her selling. 'Let him be weird,' she thought._

"Poor Jack," Rae said, with a yawn. "I really did give him a hard time about his name."

"Poor Jack?" Spot asked. "What about poor me? Every time I thought I had you figured out, you would go and do something that wasn't Rae Kelly."

She laughed and snuggled close to him. "I had to do something to keep you on your toes."

He smiled and tilted her head so that she was looking at him. "Guess what?"

"What?"

"It's after midnight.  We've been married one year today."

She smiled sleepily. "Happy Anniversary, Spot Conlon."

He gently kissed her. "Happy Anniversary to you too, Mrs. Conlon."

She burrowed her head in the crook of his neck between  his jaw and his chest and fell asleep.

He smiled and ran his fingers through her hair. "Sleep well, my love."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7:**

It was barely dawn when Molly woke up. She made a drowsy face, trying to sit up and feeling pain shoot through her arms. "Ouch... what in the ...." Blinking a few times to clear her eyes, she looked around. "Where am I?" Then she saw Chris curled up on the floor not too far from her and the memory came back.  She nudged him with her foot.  "Wake up."

"Whazza... huh.... what?" he mumbled sleepily, opening one bleary eye to peer at her.

"It's morning."

"Huh?" Opening his other eye as well, Chris peered out the window, still half asleep. "The sun's not even all the way up yet..."

"But I can't sleep anymore and I don't want to be alone."

"I'm not going anywhere...."

"But it's too quiet in here...keep me company."

With a sigh, he sat up, wobbling a bit. "All right..."

"Do you think Andrew will come looking for us?"

"I don't know..." He shrugged. "He might look for us, but who knows if he'll come out this way... after all, we didn't tell anyone where we were going..."

She sighed. "I want to go home, Chris.  Not back to Brooklyn, but back to Pleasant Valley and Spot and Rae and Kendra and everywhere else."

"I do too.... but you're lucky you have the choice... Well, you would have the choice if we weren't stuck here, that is."

"I'm sure if you talk to Spot he'll let you come back."

Chris snorted. "We didn't part on good terms... I doubt he'll be ready to hear me out any time soon."

She leaned her head against the wall.  "My fingers and wrists hurt."

"My whole body hurts..."

"Maybe she'll untie us."

"Do you think? She didn't seem very nice yesterday..."

"Maybe she was just in a bad mood."

"We can only hope... My personal opinion is she's crazy."

"I wish this nightmare was over."

Chris simply nodded in agreement. The door opened and Dwarf walked in with a tray of food. Molly and Chris fell silent, watching him uncertainly.

"Eat," he said, setting the tray on the floor and walking back toward the door.

"Uh.... sir...?" Molly held up her hands. "It'd be kind of hard, tied up..."

He stopped and scratched his head. "Duchess said that you two had to stay tied up."

"Well how does she expect us to eat? Like hogs?" Chris asked.

Dwarf scratched his head again and wrinkled his nose. "I don't guess so."

"Well?" Molly moved her wrists towards him.

He slowly moved toward her and pulled out his knife.

She squeaked and closed her eyes tightly. 'I'm gonna die!' she thought. After a few sawing noises, the ropes suddenly fell free, and she opened her eyes again. Breathing a sigh of relief, she wriggled over to the food and began to eat ravenously.

Moments later Chris joined her. "You got your wish," he said, before biting into a piece of slightly stale bread.

"Yeah," she agreed around a mouthful of lukewarm, pretty flavorless soup.

Moments later the door banged open again and Duchess walked in. "What is going on in here? I thought I told you to tie them up?"

"They said they couldn't eat 'less they was untied," Dwarf said, "So I... untied 'em..."

She hit him. "You fool!"

"We won't run away. Promise," Molly said, her voice almost a whimper.

Chris nodded. "Yeah... it's not like we know where we are...."

"Shut up!" Duchess yelled, causing both Molly and Chris to jump.

"What did WE do?" Chris muttered, poking at his soup.

"You invaded my territory!" she yelled. "Maybe those people way back when had the right idea about spies.  They executed them!"

Molly squeaked. "But we aren't spies! We were going to Coney Island and we got lost! Honest!"

"Likely story."

"It's true!" Chris piped in.  Dwarf kicked him in the chest. 

"Shut up.  Tie them back up Dwarf," Duchess yelled, storming from the room. 

Chris flailed backwards, gasping for air, and coughing horribly.  Molly scrambled closer to him, but Dwarf caught her sore arm and she cried out in pain.

"HEY!" Chris yelled. "Let her alone! We haven't done anything to you!"

Duchess strode back into the room and picked him up by his collar. "What will it take to get you to shut up?"

"Just leaving us be! It's not like we can get back home or anything. We don't even know where we are!"

She back-handed him. "Watch the way you talk to me," she growled.

Chris yelped, holding his cheek. "I was just saying..." he mumbled.

She tossed him at Dwarf, who had just finished tying Molly's wrists behind her back again.  She glanced at Molly for a moment before walking over to her.

Molly stared at her, wide-eyed, and scooted back as best she could. 

"Don't ever argue with me!" Duchess yelled, before storming from the room.

Dwarf kicked her in the ribs before following his leader.  With a yelp, she curled up, whimpering. When the door closed, Chris scooted across the floor.  "Are you alright, Molly?" he whispered.

"I think so," she whispered tearfully. "It just really hurt..."

"Can you sit up?"

She struggled to sit up (as it was hard to do, tied up as she was) and winced a little, but nodded.

"You can lean against me if you want," he offered.

Wriggling a bit, she managed to scoot a little closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder. "Thanks, Chris.... You know... Sometimes, you aren't so bad."

He sighed, "Tell that to Spot."

"I would if I could..."

"I'm sure we'll get out of here....eventually."

"Probably when we're old and gray," she muttered.

He slowly moved his arms so that his arms were around her shoulders. "We'll figure something out."

"I hope so." Molly sighed, snuggling closer to him. "You know... I always thought Hades was a bit of a tyrant at times... But she's not as grouchy as that.. Duchess, is it?"

"Hades is no where near as bad as this Duchess person," Chris said.  "I wonder what Spot, Rae and the others are doing right about now."

"Having a lot more fun than we are, I can guarantee it."

* * *

"Spot...where are you taking me?" Rae asked uncertainly, as Spot led her blind-folded through the woods.

"Stop asking. You know I won't tell you."

"At least take the blind fold off, Spot...please..."

"If I did, you would know where I was taking you." He sighed. "Come now Rae, don't you trust me?"

"I do...I just don't like not being able to see where I'm going."

"Just trust me. It would ruin the surprise if you could see, because then you would've known pretty much right as we started."

She gave a slight pout, and Spot leaned down to kiss her.

"The pout's not going to do it, sweetheart," he told her with a grin.

"It used to work just fine, thank you very much."

"That's because you're wearing the blindfold now. You don't have those sad eyes to go with it now." He chuckled softly.

She pushed him playfully. "Just keep walking, mister."

"Walking."

"Are we almost there yet?" She asked, slipping her hand in his.

"Almost. Be patient."

"Hurry up will ya...we can't leave Sam very long..."

"Julie is taking care of him... everything will be fine."

"But he gets hungry every couple of hours and Julie can't feed him."

He held a finger to Rae's lips. "Everything will be alright, if you let it."

She smiled slightly. "I guess you're right."

"Of course I am."

She laughed. "Remind me not to tell you that again...your head will get too big."

"I'll be sure to forget," he assured her with a grin.

"Can we start moving again?"

He laughed and tugged her along. After another few minutes he stopped.  "We're here."

"Okay. Take the blindfold off now!!"

"Not until after I kiss you."

"Spooooot!" she whined impatiently.

With a laugh he pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

"Now?" she asked, when the kiss ended.

"I don't know..." he teased, "I kinda like having you like this."

"Spoooot! Spot, I'm warning you!"

With another laugh he pulled the blindfold off. "Happy now?" he asked, but he didn't give her a chance to answer, because he kissed her again.

Rae looked around and laughed, kissing him back. "You brought me here?"

"Figured it was as good a place as any for us to be alone," he said, scooping her up into his arms.

"Ohhh, I love you," she said, grinning happily.

"I love you too, Darling."

* * *

"I..." Molly paused and made a face. "I need to use the bathroom." The problem was, neither Duchess nor her flunkies had been in the room for some time.

Chris shifted uncomfortably. "Well...I..uh...maybe they'll come in soon."

"You think they'll come if we shout for them?"

"Are you sure you want to upset them again?" he asked, lightly touching Molly's sore ribs.

She flinched. "No.... but I really gotta go..."

As if on cue the door opened and Duchess walked in.

Molly watched her cross the room, almost too afraid to speak up. "Um.... excuse me?" she squeaked.

"What?" she growled as she paced the room

"I... I have to use the bathroom. Really badly."

Duchess rolled her eyes, but hauled Molly to her feet and practically drug her from the room. Chris frowned.

They returned moments later and Duchess threw Molly back on the floor next to Chris. She paced the room in silence for several minutes before turning back to them. "So Spot moved across state huh? Why?"

Chris shrugged. "I don't know. We didn't- well, my sister and I- we didn't meet them right away..."

"Annie says that he left because of a factory accident," Molly said.

Chris snorted. "Like she would know."

"Who's Annie?" Duchess asked.

"She's one of the twins they found. Ann and Andy," she explained.

"What's this about an accident?" Duchess demanded as she began to pace again.

Chris shrugged. "I'm not sure... they never really told us..."

"Annie said something about an explosion," Molly retorted.

"Well it's not like I know... no one tells me anything," Chris muttered.

"Explosion...?" Duchess murmured, pausing.

Molly shrank back. "That's all I know...but his face got messed up because of it..."

She smirked. "Of course.... I bet that did a blow to his ego, eh?" She snorted. "Oh, what can destroy the great Spot Conlon..."

"Rae," both Chris and Molly muttered.

"What about Rae?" Duchess demanded.

"Nothing," Molly said, shrinking back even further.

"If you're going to start something, you'd better finish it," she snapped.

"What do you want to know?" Chris asked.

"You mentioned Rae... Why? Did she cause this explosion or something?"

"No...but she's been with Spot since the accident...they're married now."

"Married?!" she squawked in disbelief. "You're talking about Rae Kelly and Spot Conlon?.... But they hated each other!"

"Not anymore."

She started pacing again, muttering, "I don't believe it... I just don't believe it... Someone doesn't like me... to play all these sick tricks on me!... I don't believe this..."

"They have a baby too...." Chris said, then yelped in pain when Molly kicked him.

"That is... that is absurd!" Duchess pointed an accusing finger at them. "You're making all of this up, aren't you?"

"No," they both whimpered.

She frowned. "That's just... impossible."

"But it's the truth..."

"Well you two better think of a way to get Conlon and his little 'family' here to prove it...If doesn't show up...you'll regret it."

Molly and Chris looked at one another and gulped. Who knew when the word would get to Spot that they were missing?

~*~

"Daddy," Andy yelled running into the clearing by the little cabin.

Spot looked up from the porch swing where he and Rae were dozing. "What is it?" he asked, yawning.

"Somethin's wrong with Julie," he panted.

"What do you mean?" Rae asked worriedly.

"She's sittin' at the table and she laid her head down while we was eatin' lunch...but she won't wake up!"

Spot frowned, concerned. "All right, we're coming."

"Hurry, Daddy," he said, pulling on Spot's hand.  "Sam's screaming!"

He hurried, with Rae at his heels. "We're coming."

Once back up at the house, Rae rushed to the living room to pick up Sam while Spot checked on Julie.  "Julie," he said, shaking her shoulder.

Julie didn't stir. Spot's frown deepened and he shook her shoulder a little harder. "Come on Julie... Wake up..."

Rae reached around him and placed a hand on her face. "She's burning up...get her upstairs..."

With a nod, he scooped her up. "Who will go for the doctor?" he asked.

"Can you go?" she asked, following him up the stairs.

"I..." he hesitated for a moment before nodding. "Yes... yes, I'll go."

"Thank you," she said, setting Sam down in the upstairs cradle.

He nodded, creasing his brow worriedly. He just hoped that the townsfolk had forgotten their accusations of him as a murderer. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

She gave him a quick kiss. "Be careful."

"I will." And he ran out of the house and down the road to town.

Rae turned to Julie and began to bathe her face in cool water when Ann slipped into the room.

"What's goin' on, Momma? Why won't Julie wake up?"

"I don't know, sweetheart.  Can you do me a big favor?" She nodded, wide-eyed. "Can you go downstairs and play with Kendra until Daddy gets back with the doctor?"

She nodded and raced downstairs.

"Can I help Momma?" Andy whispered at her side.

"Sure sweetheart. Could you go get me some more water for Julie?"

He nodded and gave her a quick hug, before going to get some more water.

Rae sagged a little, frowning wearily. "Why us? ... It's always something..."

"It happens to all of us sooner or later, my dear."

Rae turned suddenly, "Noelle?"

And there she was. Noelle smiled. "Hello Rae dear."

She threw her arms around the older woman. "I'm so glad that you are here."

Patting Rae's head, she hugged her back. "It seems as though this troop has had a rough time?"

"It sure has.  I thought things might settle down a bit after Chris left....but now this..." she said, pointing at Julie.

"You go take care of Sam and let Grandma Noelle take care of Julie."

Rae gave a slight smile at the older woman's self-proclaimed role.

"Thank you, Noelle."

"Your welcome dear," Noelle said, pushing Rae from the room.

She frowned a bit when she was finally out of the room and headed downstairs just as Spot arrived with the doctor. "Noelle's here..." she told him.

"Noelle Saint?" the doctor asked. After a pause, Rae nodded. "I want you two to stay down here out of the way. Noelle will be all the help I need."

"Um... all right..."

With a nod, the doctor disappeared up the stairs and Rae leaned against Spot.

"Noelle is back? But how did she...?" Spot asked.

"I don't know....she just showed up in Julie's room," Rae whispered wearily.

"I believe we live in ... a very... curious house..."

"You can say that again," she replied, resting her head on his shoulder and closing her eyes.

Spot smiled, putting his arm around her. "Come on... Why don't we sit down so you can rest?"

She merely nodded and allowed him to lead her to the couch.

They sat down and he held her, stroking her hair gently. "I wonder what happened..."

She shook her head. "I don't know...we shouldn't have left her alone..."

"We couldn't have predicted this would happen, Rae."

"I can't help but feel guilty about it, Spot."

He sighed and nodded. "I know."

They were quiet for several minutes. "Spot..."

"Hmm?"

"I think it would be a good idea to send for Chris..."

After a moment, he nodded. "Yes... yes, it probably would be."

She started to stand. "I'll go into town and send a telegram..."

"No, no... I will. You'll worry yourself sick if you go, wondering what's happening... Best that you stay and get the news first, hmm?"

She nodded slowly. "I guess you're right...it's about time for me to feed Sam anyway."

He kissed her forehead. "I'll be back soon."

"I love you," she whispered, taking his hand.

He smiled. "I love you too."

He gave her kiss before he left the house again.

With a heavy sigh, Rae went off to get Sam, who was beginning to whimper, and fed him.

After feeding him, changing his diaper and putting him back down for a nap, Rae went to the playroom to check on Ann, Andy and Kendra.

"Are you three getting along?" she asked.

"Yes," Andy chirped, but Ann made a bit of a face.

"Kinda... But Kendra keeps pulling my hair!"

Rae sat on the floor and pulled the baby girl into her lap. "Don't pull Annie's hair sweetheart."

"Annie," she repeated, grasping onto a lock of Rae's hair.

"No Kendra," Rae said, prying her hair from the little girl's hands.

"No," she said to Rae seriously.

Andy started to laugh, but after a stern look from Rae, he quickly covered his mouth with his hand.

"Can we go play outside?" Ann asked after a moment.

Rae sighed. "I guess you can go play in the front of the house," she said, standing and lifting Kendra into her arms.  "I'll come sit outside with you."

They nodded, scrambling to their feet and grabbing a few toys to play with outdoors. 

Rae settled Kendra on the porch playing with some blocks and sat on the steps to wait for news from the doctor.

Andy and Ann occupied themselves playing a game of tag. Not too long after, the doctor came outside.

Rae jumped to her feet. "What's wrong with Julie?"

"Well," he said, placing his hands together. "We are not quite sure... She seems to have a terribly high fever."

"Is...is there something you can do?"

"I can give you a medicine that might help.... but the best you can do is just make sure she gets lots of rest and drinks a lot of water to keep cool."

"Can she...die...because of this?"

"It ... is possible... if the fever rises too high," he admitted.

Rae ran her fingers through her hair.  "Spot went into town to send for her brother..."

Just then Spot came running back into the clearing.

"Rae!" He was waving an envelope. "Read this." He looked annoyed and worried at the same time.

She took the letter and quickly read its contents.  "Not this...we don't need this now!"

Thumping his hands on his hips, he said, "Do you know this has been sitting in the post office for FOUR DAYS?!"

"What?!?!?!"

"Yes! Of all the nerve! They were afraid to deliver it to our house!"

Rae growled and then sighed. "What are we going to do? Julie needs Chris here."

Spot sighed as well. "I don't know.... I guess I'm going to have to go to Brooklyn and look for him."

Nick suddenly appeared from inside the house. "Both of you go...take Sam with you....the last thing the two of you need now is another separation."

Rae made a startled squeak. "But.... but what about Ann and Andy... and Julie... they'll need us too..."

"Noelle and I will be here with them."

"But ... I..."

Spot held a finger to her lips. "Shush... Let's just get Sam and go. They're offering to help us here."

She sighed. "Alright."

Grabbing her hand, he pulled her inside, they packed a few things, and grabbed Sam. 

"Momma... Daddy... where are you going?" Ann asked when they exited the house.

"We have to go to Brooklyn to get Chris," Spot explained.

"Can we go?" Andy asked.

"Not this time sweetheart," Rae said.

"But Sam can go..." he whined.

"Sam's a baby and Nick and Noelle can't feed him... Behave for us, all right?"

Andy pouted, but nodded. She kissed both Andy's and Ann's foreheads, waited for Spot to do the same, and then they left, heading for the train station.

"I feel bad for leaving like that, Spot," she said as they boarded the train.

"There wasn't much we could have done..." he replied quietly. "If those postal workers would have delivered the mail..." He grumbled under his breath.

"The letter said that Molly was gone too....where do you think they could have gone?"

"I don't know... But I'm really hoping their disappearance is not because of Chris' behavior."

"Can anything else go wrong?" she asked, adjusting Sam in her arms and leaning her head against the back of the seat.

"Probably... but don't jinx it," Spot replied.

She sighed. "I'll try not to."

Leaning over, he kissed her cheek. "I didn't mean you in particular... just saying that... might."

* * *

Rae and Spot stood across the street from the Brooklyn lodging house. "Ready?" he asked her.

She nodded, shifting Sam from one hip to the other.

Blank and Shadow glanced up when they entered and both ran over to greet them at the door.

"It took you long enough," Shadow commented.

"They didn't bring the letter to us," Rae explained.

"Why not?"

"Because they're stupid townspeople who let rumors get the best of them," Spot muttered.

Sam woke and began to whimper.

Shadow looked over at Rae, who was holding him. "Is that the baby?" She scooted over to her and peered at Sam. "Awww..... Can I have him?" she kidded.

"I gave your sister back...isn't that enough?" Spot teased.

"You're kidding, right?" But she chuckled a bit anyway.

"I think Sam is getting hungry," Rae said. "I better go feed him before he throws a fit."

Spot smiled and nodded, before looking back at Shadow and Blank. "All right... tell me what you know... where were they last?"

"I left them selling together a few blocks away," Blank answered.

"And we haven't seen them since," Shadow added.

"If he did anything to my sister, so help me, I'll-"

"Right now we need to worry about finding them," Spot interrupted.

Blank sighed. "You're right."

"Now... where did you look so far?"

"All over New York...but no one seems to have seen them."

Spot gave a long, thoughtful pause. Then he frowned deeply. "Have you talked to Duchess?"

"No one knows where she is these days."

He frowned even more deeply. "I'll bet she knows..."

"Silk may know where to find her..." Shadow started.

"But you and Rae were the only people who could ever find Silk." Blank added.

"Well.... I guess she'll be my first visit."

"Be careful," Hades said, joining the group.  "The birds are saying that Duchess will stop at nothing less than killing you."

He scowled. "I'm not afraid of her."

"I know you aren't," she snapped.  "But don't forget that you have a family to look after," she added, looking upstairs to where Rae had disappeared with Sam.

"I know..."

She clapped her hand on his shoulder and walked away.

Spot sighed and plopped onto a chair, folding his hands before him.

"Where are Kendra and the others?" Blank said, sitting in a nearby chair.

"They're back at the house with Nick and Noelle," he replied.

Blank nodded slowly.  "Hades was right...you need to be careful.  No one is sure exactly how powerful Duchess is these days."

"I will be.... But I'm not going to be afraid of her... That would just sort of defeat the purpose of confronting her."

"Do you think she has them?" Shadow asked, sitting beside her brother.

"I wouldn't doubt it," Spot replied.

"We're here if you need us when you are ready to close in on her," Blank offered.

"Thanks for the offer, but I think it would be best for Rae and I to go alone."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"I'll keep an eye on Sam for you," Shadow offered.

"That would be wonderful."

Blank glanced out the window.  "Crowds should be getting thick soon. Do you want to go look for Silk now or wait until morning?"

"I'll look for her now."

"Good luck," Blank said.

Spot nodded. "Tell Rae where I've gone?"

He nodded. "We will."

Rae came back down a few minutes after he left, a sleeping Sam in her arms. "Where's Spot?" she asked, glancing around.

"He went to find Silk," Shadow replied.

She nodded and sat down on the couch.  "The last thing we needed was for Chris to disappear."

"And Molly," Blank pointed out.

Rae nodded.  "Spot had gone into town to send for Chris when we got the letter....Julie's really sick and she might...."

Shadow frowned.

Rae leaned her head against the back of the couch. "Just when things were getting better..."

"They can't stay bad forever...." Blank said absently.

* * *

Spot carefully picked his way through the evening crowds.  He hadn't needed to go looking for Silk in a long time, but he hoped he could still find her.

"You look a little lost there," a voice said behind him.

He turned suddenly, his hands going to his pockets. "Just looking for you."

Silk smiled, noticing the motion. "Don't worry, I left whatever loose change you were carrying in tact.... for now. What do you need?"

"Some information."

"Well, there's no telling what information I might have, but it'll cost you up front."

"This is important Silk."

"So is my survival Spot. I need to stay in business some how."

"Fine, but I'll give you what I think is fair after I see what you know."

She gave him an agitated look but saw he meant business and sighed. "All right. What do you want?"

"I need to know about Duchess. Everything you can tell me."

"Well... there's a lot or a little I can tell you... I don't want to bother you with useless information... what exactly do you want?"

"Where is she hiding these days?"

"Well, she's moved around a bit the last few months," Silk replied, squinting at the sky as she thought. "She goes back and forth between a couple locations."

"Any idea where she is now?  Somewhere were a couple of kids could have stumbled upon her accidentally?"

She shook her head. "Nothing definite. Like I said, she's been on the move a lot lately... I can give you the places I usually see her or her thugs, but that's about it."

"Did you see Chris anywhere outside of Brooklyn?"

"Hmmm.... Last I saw, he was with some girl, around Coney Island."

"Is one of Duchess' hideouts on Coney Island?"

She nodded. "Unless she changed on me within the last two days, yes."

"That's where they are! Thanks Silk," he said, walking away.

"Hey!" She grabbed the back of his shirt. "Pay up!" He pulled some money out of his pocket and shoved it at her. "Pleasure doing business with you Spot." And as easily as she came, she melted back into the crowd.

He rolled his eyes before walking as quickly as he could back to the lodging house.

Rae looked up the moment he entered. "Well?"

"Duchess has them on Coney."

Rae frowned. "I doubt she'll give them up easily either..."

He sat down next to her and put his arm around her.  "You and I will go talk to her in the morning."

With a sigh, she nodded.

"You don't have to go, sweetheart, I just thought that you would want to go."

"I do... I'm just afraid it's going to be a long, difficult day tomorrow."

"Why don't you go ahead and get some sleep," he suggested.

After a moment she nodded and kissed him softly. "Good night then."

"I'll be up in a few minutes," he said, as she left the room.

"All right."

Rae stepped into the extra room and knelt on the floor next to the dresser drawer that would serve as Sam's cradle until they went home.  "What if we're too late Sam?" she whispered. Sam simply wrinkled his nose in his sleep. She kissed his forehead and wearily crawled into the bed.

And, as promised, a few minutes later, Spot came up.

"You're really worried about tomorrow aren't you?" he asked, sitting beside her and brushing the hair from her face.

"Yes," she replied with a sigh, resting her head on his shoulder. 

"What's worrying you, sweetheart?"

"I'm just.... worried that we might be too late... I mean, I don't know if Duchess would be that drastic.... but... what if she was?"

He stroked her hair. "The only way to find out for sure is to go over there."

"You... don't think she did, did you?"

"No...of course not," he said. _It's only me that she wants dead_, he thought.

* * *

"I'm hungry..." Molly moaned.

"Me too," Chris replied.

She was quiet for a brief moment. "Do... do you think Spot and Rae will come for us?"

"I'm sure they will....whenever they find out that we are missing."

"But will they know where to look? I mean... I've never heard of this Duchess girl before until now... What if Spot doesn't know who she is either?"

"Spot's lived here most of his life...He most likely knows who she is....since she seems to know him."

"Well.... Spot can't know EVERYONE in New York.... and... Well, I heard he had a reputation, so word would get around about him...." She sighed. "I don't know..."

"I don't either....I wonder how much longer she's willing to wait..."

"I'm hoping a good long time... She scares me."

"You aren't the only one she scares."

Molly fidgeted and sighed. "I wish she would at least untie us..."

"After all the smarting off we've done?"

"You mean that you've done...right?"

He sighed. "I guess..."

"My ribs still hurt...is it possible that he cracked one or two?"

"I'd say quite possible," Chris replied with a nod.

Molly whined a little and leaned her head against the wall. "I was afraid you would say that."

"Well, I never was very positive, I suppose.

Molly whimpered again.

* * *

"You two please be careful," Hades said as Spot and Rae walked down the stairs.

"We will," Rae replied. "Thank you for taking care of Sam while we're gone."

"We don't mind watching him for a few hours....but I don't want to raise the kid...so you two better come back."

"Don't worry, I wouldn't trust you to raise a kid," Spot teased a bit, trying to keep things light. "We'll try to be back before sundown."

"We'll be back before that," Rae corrected. "Sam will be hungry again in a few hours."

"Right."

She sighed. "Ready?"

Spot glanced at her. "I'm telling myself I am."

"If you don't leave you can't come back," Shadow stated.

They offered slightly weak smiles. "We'll see you soon." And out the door they went.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8:**

Rae shivered as they walked the streets of Coney Island, looking for Duchess or one of her goons.

Spot put his arm around her, keeping a close lookout as well. "Everything will be fine," he told her.

"I don't think I've ever been so jumpy before a fight."

"Me neither," he replied quietly, glancing around suspiciously for any sign of a sneak attack.

"Spot..."

"Hmm..."

"There..." she said, pointing ahead of them where Carney was walking toward them.

Spot gritted his teeth.

"Well, well, well... look who's come for a visit," Carney said.

"Two Brooklyn newsies are missing...I came to get them back."

"I thought you had left town, Conlon.  Got married and gone soft, so I heard."

"I am married, but I'm far from soft," he growled.

Carney snorted and gestured behind Spot and Rae. They turned around to see two more goons standing behind them. "You've both gone soft."

Spot turned back to Carney, scowling. "We just want the kids back."

"Finders keepers, Conlon."

"Take us to Duchess...now!" Rae said.

"You're looking as beautiful as ever Miss Kelly," Carney replied with a smirk.

"Shut your flapping mouth and take us already!"

"And still as feisty...alright...let's go." The men roughly grabbed Rae's and Spot's arms and dragged them off to Duchess' hideout.

"It's about time you showed up Conlon," Duchess said in greeting, walking over as they entered.

Spot simply glared at her.

"You have two kids," Rae said. "We've come to get them back."

Duchess ignored her and turned to Spot. "The boy told me something about some scars...I just didn't believe him...Very nice, Conlon."

"Just give us Chris and Molly, Duch," he snapped.

"Not likely."

"And why not?"

"I'm not about to just GIVE you anything...I've worked to long and hard to get where I am..."

"At least let us see them!"

"Tut tut, Conlon. You'll see them, eventually."

"Now!" he growled.

She eyed him critically. "I don't believe you're in the position to make demands from me," she finally said, gesturing to her goons surrounding them.

"We'll fight if that's what you want," Rae said, "but not until we see and speak to Chris and Molly."

Duchess' eyes finally flashed to Rae. "I don't believe this either... You.. and Conlon? Honestly, I thought you would have known better..."

Rae simply crossed her arms and glared at the girl across from her.

After a moment, Duchess sighed. "I suppose I could indulge you one last request..."

She nodded to two of her goons, who disappeared and returned a moment later with Chris and Molly.

"Spot! Rae!" they cried out.

The goons let them go and they rushed toward their rescuers.

"Are you all right?" Rae asked anxiously.

"What happened?" Spot demanded, fully prepared to start lecturing Chris if he had to.

Molly wrapped her arms around Rae, and began to quietly sob. "I wanna go home."

"Don't worry, we'll take you home," Spot assured her.

"Not so fast, Conlon," Duchess said.

Looking up, he glared at Duchess. "What?"

"We have a fight to settle remember."

"Can't this wait until some other day? I have some children I need to talk to."

She motioned to her goons who grabbed Chris, Molly and Rae.  "We settle this now."

"On one condition..."

"I don't think you're at liberty to make conditions, Conlon."

"ONE condition."

After a moment, she sighed and rolled her eyes. "All right. What is it?"

"Win or lose, you let THEM go."

She considered this seriously for several long minutes. "Fine."

He spat in his hand out of habit. "Shake on it."

She copied the action and they shook firmly, binding the agreement. Spot rolled up his sleeves and she mimicked the action. "Let's get this over with."

The opponents circled each other cautiously, maintaining eye contact.  At last, when it felt the tension could get no thicker, Duchess aimed a punch at Spot's jaw.  As she was a very good fighter who gave nothing away in the movement of her torso, the punch landed solidly.  "Any last words, Conlon?" she smirked as he shook his head, slightly stunned.  

"I'm not going to give you the pleasure," he said, throwing a punch of his own.

She was expecting it and dodged to the side, but not quite fast enough.  The blow glanced off her shoulder.  

_Concentrate, Conlon_, he told himself as he watched his opponent.

"Get 'im Duch!" shouted one of her men.

"You have gotten soft Conlon," Duchess remarked as she sent a high kick toward his sternum.  

He saw the kick, but didn't have time to react before her foot hit him.  He stumbled backwards.  "I'm not soft," he retorted. "I just haven't fought in over a year."

Duchess managed to contain herself from laughing gleefully and knocked him off his feet instead.  

He pulled himself off the ground. "I know you can so better than that," he taunted.

Rae held her breath, and she and Molly were clutching tightly onto Chris' arms.

Duchess kicked him in the ribs before he could get fully upright again.  "That better?" 

He clutched his ribs. "A little."

He straightened himself up before lunging at her. She dodged quickly, leaving a foot in his way to send him flying again. He went sprawling onto the cobblestones, their rough edges scraping his face. He had just managed to turn over and was trying to get to his feet when Duchess, eager to finish this fight quickly, leapt on top of him, straddling his chest and punching him repeatedly until he was nearly unconscious and a couple of her goons dragged her back.

"He ain't moving," one of them said.

"I think he's dead," another responded.

"NO!" Rae yelled.

Duchess rolled her eyes and shook off her thugs' restraining hands. "He's not dead," she said in a bored tone, "More's the pity."

Chris and Molly led Rae away.

One of the goons grinned. "They think he's dead."

A calculating gleam entered Duchess' eyes. "Drag him inside," she told Carney, "Tell me when he wakes up."

"Yes ma'am," he said, carrying out her orders.


	9. Chapter 9

The door to the Brooklyn lodging house opened slowly and Chris, Molly, and Rae walked in, with a air of despair around them. Rae and Molly were in tears, and Chris didn't seem to know what to do. Hades lifted a brow and ran over to them. "What? What happened...." She paused. "Where is Spot..."

"Duchess..." was all Chris could manage to say.

Hades' eyes widened. "She didn't..."

With a sob, Rae fell into her arms. "Why did all this have to happen?" she sobbed.

Hades hesitantly patted her head, uncertain of what to say. Looking over, she saw Molly bawling in Chris' arms. Chris didn't look like he'd hold out much longer either.

Pushing Rae back, Hades struck her cheek hard.  "I know you're upset, Rae, but you have a family to look after, so pull yourself together."

Rae stopped sobbing for a moment, dumbstruck. And then she struck Hades in return. "Give me a break, Hades! I deserve some grief! I just watched my husband die!" But she wasn't quite sobbing uncontrollably anymore, which had been Hades' intent in the first place.

"Sam's awake and has been crying for over an hour," Hades said.

Sniffling, Rae wiped her nose on an old hanky and nodded. "I'll be upstairs with him then."

Hades nodded as Rae headed up the stairs.  Just then the door opened and Blank came in. Molly threw herself into her brother's arms.

Blank almost fell over. "Molly! You're okay!" He hugged her tightly and then paused. "What... what's goin on?"

"She killed him..." she sobbed.

"She killed who-... She killed Spot?"

Blank looked to Chris who only nodded, before walking slowly up the stairs.

"I- I never thought she actually would..."

Molly looked up at her brother. "I want to go back home with Rae."

He nodded slowly. "Okay." He wasn't terribly thrilled about it, but he did understand.

Rae came back downstairs moments later, Sam in one arm, a bag in her free hand. "I'm going home," she said, with such a determined look that no one dared argue with her.

"I'm coming too," Molly said to her.

Rae shook her head. "Your place is here with your family."

"You and everyone back in Pleasant Valley are my family.... Andrew and Shadow are my family too... but... I just can't stay, Rae."

Rae finally nodded. "Alright...but hurry...I don't want to stay in Brooklyn any longer than I have to."

With a nod, she ran upstairs to get her things. As she went up, Chris was coming down. "Where's everyone going?"

"Home."

"Can I... is it all right if I.... go too?"

Rae nodded. "I was going to have Blank send you home anyway....Julie's really sick..."

"Julie...?" He looked terribly bothered. "I'll be right down."

Rae sighed and set her bag on the floor. Less than five minutes later, he was back and ready to go.

Molly came down only a moment later.  "I'm ready."

"All right." Rae turned to Hades and hugged her tightly. "Thank you for everything...."

"If you need anything, just let us know."

With a nod, she silently motioned for Molly and Chris to follow her out.

* * *

Rae handed Sam to Molly as she slowly opened the front door of the big house.

"Welcome home," called Noelle cheerfully.

"Mommy! Daddy!" Ann and Andy squealed as they raced for the front door.

Ann stopped first. "Where's Daddy?"

Rae knelt in front of them.  "Daddy's....Daddy....Daddy had to stay in Brooklyn for a while," she said, exchanging a glance with Chris and Molly over the twins' heads.

"When's he coming back?" Andy inquired.

Rae closed her eyes.  With a sigh she stood and led them to the couch.  She sat down and pulled them into her lap. "Remember how your real Momma and Daddy went away?" He nodded, watching her uncertainly. "Daddy had to go away too..."

Andy bit his lip. Ann started to sniffle a bit. "He... he's not gonna come back?"

"No, sweetheart, he's not..."

Ann burst into tears. "I want Daddy!"

Rae pulled the little girl closer to her trying to keep back her own tears. "I know, sweetheart...I want him too."

"Does... he not love us no more?" Andy asked.

She pulled Andy closer as well. "He did love us, Andy...that's one of the reasons he's not coming back."

"What's that mean?" he asked, frowning.

Chris walked over and knelt in front of them. "He's not coming back so that Molly and I could come back."

"I want him here! Tell him to come back!!"

"It doesn't work like that, little man."

"B-but... that's not fair! Why do they always go away?!" he wailed.

"I don't know."

Turning, he latched onto Rae tightly, as if expecting her to 'go' as well in moments.

"I'm not going anywhere, Andy," she said, rubbing his back. He didn't say anything, and continued to cling to her for dear life, sniffling and whimpering.

Rae looked up as Noelle walked into the room. "How's Julie?"

"She's doing well. Her fever has come down a bit and she's been conscious for most of the day."

Chris stood. "Can I see her?"

Noelle nodded. "Just don't give her any sudden shocks."

"I won't," he said, running up the stairs.

Cracking the door open, he peered into his sister's room. "Julie?"

She slowly opened her eyes. "Chris?"

Slowly, he entered the room and nodded. Crossing the room, he stopped next to her bed and looked at her anxiously. "How are you?

"I'm really tired."

He gave her a weak smile. "Well, at least you're getting better, right?"

She nodded slowly, "I think so."

"Good... good, that's good," was all he could think of to say.

She reached out for his hand.

Carefully, he took it. "You'd better get up and about soon." He smiled a bit. "Rae can't get this house working like clockwork like you can."

"Did you come home because of me?"

He paused and then nodded. "They went to get me."

"You aren't telling me something."

"I... Noelle said I couldn't give you any shocks right now..."

She sent him a sad look. "Please tell me."

"I... don't think I can.. I don't want you to get sicker, Julie," he replied.

A single tear rolled down her cheek. "I know something bad happened, Chris. I could feel it."

"I... just... I... don't start crying, Julie," he pleaded.

She wiped the tear away only to have another fall in its place.

Chris frowned worriedly, uncertain of what to do. Surely the news of Spot's death wouldn't be good for her health at the moment... but he didn't think this crying would either.  "I'm sorry, Julie," he said, sitting beside her.

"I...it's okay," she replied, hiccupping.

"I want to tell you, but Noelle said I couldn't, sis."

She nodded and hiccupped again. "I... I guess I just have to understand."

"You'll find out soon enough," he whispered, kissing her forehead.

Julie sniffed and nodded. "It's okay... I'm glad you're back home."

"Me too, sis. Me too."

Noelle poked her head in the room at that moment. "Chris, Julie needs her rest now."

"Can he stay until I fall asleep? Please?"

After a pause, Noelle relented. "I suppose it will be all right." Julie gave her a weak smile. "Just keep it calm in here," she told them, closing the door quietly behind her.

"Go to sleep, little sister," Chris said, tucking the blanket tighter around her.

"I'll try," she replied drowsily.

He sat by her side until she fell asleep, and then he walked back downstairs.

"How did she seem?" Rae asked him when he entered.

"Weak."

She frowned. "Well, Noelle said she was better than she was, so... that's good, I suppose."

Chris sat down and buried his head in his hands. "It's my fault."

"Why do you say that?" she asked.

"If I had behaved better then you and Spot wouldn't have kicked me out and I would have been here for her."

"Well... that part is true, but she could have gotten sick either way, you know."

He sighed and looked at her. "I guess you're right." He stared at Ann and Andy, both sleeping in her lap. "Do you want me to take them upstairs?"

"You can take one, I'll take the other."

He stood and took Andy from her.

"Thank you," Rae said quietly, standing with Ann in her arms. Heading for the stairs, she put the girl to bed.

After tucking Ann and Andy into bed she quietly stepped into the hall.  She leaned against the wall with a quiet sob. It seemed as though the world was against her and her mismatched family. She sank to the floor and rested her head on her knees. If it wasn't one thing it was another. She just didn't think she could take anything else.

Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking up, she saw Chris looking down at her.

"I... I know it won't make much of a difference... but... I-I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused."

She nodded. "I know."

"I... I'm sorry this had to happen."

"Me too, Chris. Me too."

He hesitantly patted her shoulder and then went off. After all, what did adolescent boys know about comforting women?

* * *

Rae sat up in her bed suddenly when she heard a scream.  Sam and Kendra were still sleeping and it didn't sound like Ann or Andy.  Climbing from bed she walked into the hallway, pausing by the door to Molly's room, where she heard quiet sobbing.

Carefully, Rae opened the door and peeked in. "Molly?"

Molly sat up and looked at her, before bursting into tears again.

Crossing the room, she sat on the edge of her bed and hugged her. "What's the matter?"

"Nightmare," she sobbed.

Gently, she stroked her hair. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"She killed him..."

Rae hugged her tightly.

"Why did it happen?"

"I'm... not sure. Duchess just had something against Spot, I suppose."

"It's like he wasn't even trying, Rae."

"He was..." Rae frowned. "But perhaps Duchess had been right... out of Brooklyn, away from the near daily fights, he had gotten soft..."

"He was anything but that."

Rae sighed, rubbing her temple. 

"I'm sorry for waking you up," Molly said, scrubbing her eyes.

"It's all right. I don't think I was sleeping too well anyway."

Molly took a deep breath. "Do you want me to take Kendra and go back to Brooklyn?"

"It's up to you. Only if you want to go," she told her, though she was wary of the idea. 

Molly hung her head. "I don't want to...but Kendra and I are just a burden to you..."

"You aren't," Rae assured her.

"If you're sure."

"I am."

"Will you tell if I get to be a burden?" Molly asked hesitantly.

Rae managed a smile. "Of course... I have the tendency to be blunt, when I need to be."

"Thank you for taking us in."

"Well, you didn't give us much of a choice at first," she teased. "But you're quite welcome."

Molly smiled slightly.

"Would you like something to drink?"

Molly nodded. "Sounds good to me." They headed downstairs and Rae got them both a glass of water. "Can I ask you a question, Rae?"

"Go ahead," she said, taking a sip of her water.

"What are you going to do now? I mean, that money can't last forever."

"I'm probably going to have to get a job in town. Perhaps at one of the shops... if they'd hire a woman, that is."

"I hate to break it to you, but they won't hire you."

"Well, I'll make them," she said determinedly.

"You'd have better luck by moving back to Brooklyn."

"I'll think of something.... If worse comes to worse, we will move back."

Molly nodded.

Rae sighed, tapping her glass absently. "All of this... I guess, was too good to be true, eh?" She frowned. "Being out of the city, I thought maybe it was different, less harsh. But no.... it's not. Not really."

"This town hasn't been the same since Nick and Noelle moved away."

"Why do you think it changed?"

Molly shrugged. "Weird things started happening. Things showing up just in the nick of time.  Other things disappearing.  When Chris found me in the barn...I remember fainting out in the woods...how did I get to the barn?"

Rae shrugged, frowning slightly. "Odd things happened here too..."

Molly yawned. "It makes my head hurt trying to figure it out."

"Yes... it would make anyone's, I suppose," she replied quietly, though she did think about it. How was it so?

Molly yawned again. "I think I can go back to sleep now."

"All right." She nodded. "Sleep well, Molly."

"Try to get some sleep yourself."

She nodded, though she couldn't see how she was going to get to sleep in such a cold, empty bed.   "This is worse than when he was in Brooklyn," Rae said with a sigh. "At least then I knew that he was coming back."  She curled up on the couch and stared at the dying embers in the fireplace, tapping her glass absently.

* * *

Blank was pacing the front room of the lodging house when the door opened and Dr. Trent walked in.

"You and I," he said, pointing to Blank, "need to have a talk... in private," he added, noticing Shadow perking up to listen as she walked by.

"Take a walk, Shadow," Blank told his sister.

"But-"

He gave her a stern look.

She scowled, shuffling off, muttering something about "stupid, boneheaded boys."

Trent waited until she left, before turning back to Blank. "I have...something at my office...that might interest you...and I need your help with a little project as well..."

Blank studied Trent uncertainly. ".... All... All right."

"Can you come right now?"

"I..." He paused, scratching his head to think. Yes, he had the time, so he nodded.

"Good...we need to hurry."

With a second nod, he trotted after Trent.

* * *

Chris poked his head in Julie's room to see if she was asleep.  They hadn't always been close, but trying to keep Spot's death from her was about to drive him crazy. He wanted to talk to someone, but didn't think he could talk to Rae or Molly.

The squeak of the door on its hinges managed to rouse Julie a bit and drowsily she asked, "Who is it?"

"Did I wake you up?"

"Mmm... a little," she murmured, trying to push herself up.

He walked in and sat on the edge of the bed. "Noelle will probably skin me alive when she finds out that I'm in here."

Julie laughed a little. "Probably," she agreed.

He smiled slightly, but then turned his face away.

"What is it?"

"It's about what happened in Brooklyn...Noelle said that I shouldn't tell you yet...but I think you have a right to know."

"What?" 

"You see....Molly and I were kidnapped by this...girl that hates Spot...and..."

She leaned forward attentively, eyes wide. "And?"

"They fought."

She paused for a second, and then her eyes widened and she gasped. "Spot? .... Did... Did he...?"

He nodded, suddenly unable to find his voice.

Her lip quivered. "I was wondering why he didn't visit."

Chris hung his head. "He agreed to fight her so that Molly and I could come home."

"All because... this girl didn't like him?"

"She said something about wanting to be greater than Spot Conlon."

"That's a stupid reason to kill someone!" she exclaimed tearfully.

Chris put his arms around her. "I know, sis."

She sniffled, resting her head on his shoulder. "It's not fair, Chris."

"If things were fair, we'd still be on the farm with Mother and Father."

"I know..."

"Julie...I've been thinking..."

"What?"

"Once you're feeling better...maybe it would be a good idea for us to go looking for Father..."

After a moment, she nodded. "Yes... that would be nice."

"But that means you have to get better real quick, little sister," he said in mock sternness.

She managed a little smile. "I'll try."

"Good. Now go back to sleep," he said, kissing her forehead.

"Night, Chris. ... And... thank you for telling me."

"I...I love you, Julie."

She smiled drowsily. "You too."

Chris quietly closed the door and walked down to the kitchen were Rae was working on lunch.

"Hello... I haven't seen you around much today." She swatted his hand when he picked up a cucumber slice and ate it.

"I've been doing some thinking...and then I went to talk to Julie..."

"About what? Is she still sleeping?"

"I told her Rae."

Rae dropped the knife and looked at him. "Noelle told you not to..."

"She needed to know Rae!"

She frowned. "I suppose she did... But... I'm just worried about her health, you know?"

"I know. I am too," he said. "But she was wondering why Spot hadn't come to see her."

She sighed. "A no win situation, I suppose."

He stared at her for a minute. "Did you get ANY sleep last night?"

She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. "... An hour? Maybe two?"

"If you keep this up, Julie and I will leave. You have to take care of yourself Rae."

She gave him a stern look. "I am Chris... I just had a lot on my mind last night."

"Well think about this. Noelle is leaving in a few days. Who will take care of Sam, Kendra and the twins if you work yourself sick?"

With a sigh, she said, "I know Chris, I know. One night isn't going to kill me."

"Just as long as it stays one night."

She sighed. "All right... I'll try to keep it that way." 

"Good. Where are the twins?"

"They should be playing in the playroom. Last I heard, Ann was trying to convince Andy that playing tea party would be fun."

"Oh dear. I think I'll take them for a walk, for Andy's sake."

Rae smiled. "Be back soon... Lunch will be ready shortly."

"We will....We'll just walk down to the old cabin and come straight back."

"All right." She squeezed his arm firmly. "And be careful."

He threw his hands up defensively. "I will. I promise."

With a nod, she released him, and he left to retrieve Ann and Andy. "Ann! Andy!" he called as he entered the playroom.

Andy looked a more than a little upset that he was holding a teacup in his hands. He looked up at Chris. "What?"

"I'm going to walk down to the cabin. Want to tag along?"

"YES!" Andy leapt to his feet.

With a sigh, Ann nodded and stood. Chris scooped her up and threw her over his shoulder. She shrieked with delight and Andy scampered ahead.

About half way to the cabin Andy stopped. "Chris?"

"What?" He shushed Ann, who was singing loudly and off-key.

"Is Momma gonna go away too?"

He shook his head. "No... no, she won't." He only hoped he was right.

"But my real Momma went away after my real Daddy did..."

Well... he couldn't just explain that away. "... She will... be fine."

He sighed and fell silent. The rest of their walk to the cabin was silent. Ann sniffled loudly as they reached it.

"You all right up there kiddo?" Chris asked.

"No," she whimpered.

"What's wrong?"

"I want Daddy back."

He frowned. "I know... everyone does."

"Momma's really sad, huh?"

"Yes, yes she is," he agreed.

"Because of Daddy?"

"Yes... she's sad because of him."

"Are we gonna get another new Daddy?"

"I doubt it." And he truly did. He couldn't see Rae willing to marry anyone else. At least, not for a very long time. Ann sighed deeply and nodded. Shortly afterward, the cabin came into view.

"Can we go back now?" Andy asked.

Chris nodded. "Lunch is probably ready anyway." With a nod Andy turned and ran back to the house. "Stay where I can see you!" he called.

Andy slowed just slightly.

"Thank you."

And then Andy suddenly took off again and ran out of Chris's sight.

"ANDY!" he yelled. There was no answer. "Ann, I'm going to have to set you down... do you think you could keep up with me?"

She gulped and nodded. "I guess so."

He set her down and trotted through the forest, careful to keep an easy pace for Ann to keep up with. After all... how fast could a six year old run?

"ANDY!!" Chris yelled again.

Ann huffed beside him, calling out in a squeaky, out of breath voice, "Andy!"

Chris stopped. "I'm going to take you back up to the house Annie. Then I'll come back and look for Andy."

She was practically wheezing. Quickly, she nodded.

Taking pity on the poor girl, he picked her back up and carried her to the house.

"Tell Andy I'm very, very mad at him!" she said to Chris as they approached the house.

Rae opened the back door. "Is there a reason Andy came running into the house and ran straight up the stairs?"

"I have no idea. He just ran off... I didn't even know he came home. I was bringing Ann home so I could go look for him."

"He threw the door open when he ran in here and when I told him to come back and close it he didn't even respond."

He frowned. "He wasn't listening to me either, when I told him to stay with us."

Rae sighed. "You and Ann go ahead and eat. I'm going to go talk to Andy."

With a nod, Chris led Ann into the kitchen.

Rae took a deep breath and shook her head, before heading up the stairs. Carefully, she opened the door to the room he and Chris shared once again. "Andy?" She could see him sitting on the window seat, but he didn't answer. Entering, she walked up next to him. "Want to talk to me?"

He shook his head.

"Well, I think we do need to talk. Why did you come running home? Did Chris or Ann say something to you?"

"They wouldn't stop talking 'bout Daddy," he whispered.

Rae sat next to him and stroked his hair gently. He turned and clung to her, sobbing. "There, there," she whispered quietly, tearing up a bit herself. 

"It's not fair. Why did Daddy have to go?"

"I don't know, sweetheart. I don't know."

He pulled back slightly. "Are we going to get a new daddy?" he asked.

She shook her head. "If you want one, I'm sorry.... But I don't want to get married again if I don't have to."

"Annie wants one, but I don't. Daddy's just go away."

Rae kissed the side of his head. "Well, you don't have anything to worry about."

"Did your Daddy go away too?"

"More or less.... but they're still ... somewhere," she said.

He sent her a confused look.  "Where?"

"I don't know. I don't think I want to know."

"Why?"

She sighed, but remained quiet for a moment, trying not to get annoyed and upset by the questioning. "They left me in New York when I was very young."

Andy nodded and leaned back against her. Rae sat there, just holding him comfortingly.

* * *

Blank stood at the edge of the clearing, watching the house.  He had been told to wait until Rae had put the children to bed before approaching the house. He still wasn't sure this was the best way to go about things... but that's what he was told to do... and Trent had given him a couple dollars for his assistance, so he couldn't turn him down.

At long last, all the upstairs lights went off, leaving one on in the living room.  Watching through the windows he could see Rae sit down in the rocking chair and bury her face in her hands. With a sigh, he walked up and knocked hesitantly on the door. When she opened the door he could tell that she had been crying.

Sniffling, she rubbed her nose. "Why are you here, Blank?" she inquired.

"I have a message to deliver."

She gave him a puzzled sort of look. "What kind of message?"

"You need to go down to the cabin right away."

"What? Why?"

"Just go, Rae."

She sighed, a bit annoyed, but too tired to argue. 

"I'll stay up here until you get back, or Sam wakes up. Whichever comes first."

She nodded and wandered across the grass. What could possibly be going through Blank's mind?

She noticed a small light on in the cabin as she neared it.  Quickening her pace, she practically ran the last few feet. Who in the world was in the cabin? Whoever it was, they had better have prepared themselves for the beating of a lifetime, she thought. She threw open the door and gasped when she saw the occupant of the bed. "It's... it's you!" she squeaked, breathless.

"Hey, sweetheart."

She was frozen, gripping the doorknob. "Spot?" she whispered.

He was barely recognizable beneath the bruises and the dried blood.  He started to reach out for her, but hissed in pain and grabbed his ribs.

She ran to his side and hugged him, despite his wounds. "You're alive?!"

"Barely," he whispered softly, trying not to wince when she touched his sore body.

She picked up his hand and kissed it gently. "How can it be?"

"She never meant to kill me...just wanted everyone to think she had," he said, although it was obviously hard for him to talk.

"Well she could have done it a different way!" She frowned, teary-eyed. "We were all so heartbroken..."

He slowly reached up and brushed the tears from her eyes. "Please don't cry."

"I'm trying not to," she said with a sniffle. "But I'm just so happy..."

"Come here," he said, motioning her closer. She did. "I love you, Rae," he said.

With a smile, this time she really did begin to cry. "I love you too, Spot."

"Can I get a kiss?" he asked.

She sniffled. "Of course you can." And she placed a soft kiss on his lips. She stretched out beside him and gently rested her head on his shoulder. "Don't ever scare me like that again."

"Well, I don't intend to be on another woman's bad side, so I won't," he said with a tired smile.

"What happened Spot?"

"From... from what I know, she pretty much beat me unconscious and dragged me off to some other room... when I woke, she brought Trent in to see me and told me that she didn't want to kill me, but if I let anyone in the city know I was alive, she WOULD probably have to...."

"What about Blank?"

"Well... she wanted me out of town, but Trent couldn't take me, as he is always busy with his office, so she finally agreed, after my assurance- surprisingly- that he was trustworthy enough to know, and... well, now I'm here."

"Do you want to go up to the house?"

"Yes... Very much."

"Can you walk on your own or do I need to go get Blank?"

"I'll try to walk on my own. I am, after all, the mighty Spot Conlon." He gave her a weak grin.

She helped him stand and put her arm around him in support as they slowly made their way back up to the house."

Blank must have spotted them coming up the walk, because he opened the door just as they approached.

He slipped Spot's free arm around his shoulder and helped them up the stairs.

Rae was grinning ear to ear. "You're going to have to sleep well tonight," she told Spot as she and Blank helped him into bed. "Everyone is going to come visit you in the morning... probably first thing, the moment they hear you're back."

"I don't want Ann and Andy to see me like this."

"We're going to have a hard time keeping them out... They were so devastated, Spot..."

"One look at my face will probably give them nightmares. In case you haven't noticed, my face looks worse than before."

She walked into the bathroom and brought out a bowl of water and a rag. "It would help to get rid of some of this dried blood," she said, gently dabbing the wet cloth on his face. He hissed in pain. "I'm sorry, Spot..."

"I-it's okay... I'm sure my face would look a lot better without the blood..."

"I'll try to be gentle."

He smiled a bit before wincing the slightest bit again.

"Is there an empty bed somewhere Rae? I'm a little tired," Blank said.

"Yes, take whatever room you'd like."

"Thanks," he said, leaving the room.

With a nod she turned back to Spot, only to find he had fallen asleep. Smiling, she changed into her nightgown and crawled into bed next to him.

~*~

Early the next morning, there was a knock on the door and Rae could hear Ann saying, "Momma? Blank is in our house!" in a sort of tattletale voice. Before Rae could respond Ann opened the door and ran in.

"He is, he is! I told him he's not allowed here without asking but.... DADDY!" she shrieked.

Spot sat up suddenly, but hissed in pain and fell heavily against the pillows.

"Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!"

"Quiet down, Annie," Rae snapped, turning to Spot.

He gave Ann a quiet smile. "Hello, Annie."

"Can I come give you a hug?" she asked in a quiet voice.

"A very gentle one. Daddy is in a lot of pain," he said.

She crept over and carefully crawled on the edge of the bed. "How'd you get hurt?"

"It's a very long, complicated story," he simply told her. She gave him a gentle hug and placed a quick kiss on his cheek. He ruffled her hair a bit.

Andy walked into the room, rubbing his eyes. "What's Annie screamin' 'bout?"

"Daddy's back!" she screeched.

"Huh?"

She pointed at the bed and Spot gave him a little wave. "Hey there, Andy."

"I thought you went away," he said.

"Well.... Not exactly... Though I thought I did too for a little while."

Still Andy hung back, looking at the floor.

Spot looked at him quizzically. "What's the matter?" he asked after a moment.

"I'm scared that you're gonna go away again."

He smiled. "I don't plan on 'going away' for a very, very long time."

Andy looked at the floor again.

"Can't I get a hug, little man?" Spot asked.

"I don't want to hurt you anymore, Daddy."

"You won't hurt me.... Do you think you did?" he asked.

Andy shook his head. "You're bleeding and...I thought..."

"I'll be all right with a small hug."

Andy crept closer and hugged him. "I missed you Daddy."

He planted a kiss on the top of Andy's head. "I missed you too, kiddo."

Ann scrambled onto the bed. "Why is Daddy's face bleeding?"

"It's a very long... strange story," he said.

Rae rolled out of bed and ran to the washroom. She returned a moment later with a wet cloth.  She sat beside him on the bed and began to dab at the blood.

Spot winced a little, murmuring his thanks to her. Then he looked at the twins. "Have the two of you been good for Mom?" They both nodded. He smiled. "If I asked her, would she say the same?"

She laughed slightly. "Actually they were very well behaved."

"Very good," he praised, and they looked relieved.

"I thought I heard your voice," Chris said, leaning against the door frame.

Spot looked up and nodded. "Chris."

"You scared us all pretty bad."

"Scared myself pretty badly..."

"If she had it in for you, why did she let you live?"

He shook his head slowly. "I don't really know...."

"Glad you're back, Spot."

"Glad to be back," he admitted. "How's Julie doing?" 

"I think she's doing all right," Chris said, walking a bit further into the room.

"She real weak," Rae said, walking to the cradle and picking Sam up.

"But I think she's getting better," Chris said with a firm nod.

"What's all the commotion?" Molly asked, walking into the room with Kendra.

She had to stop herself when she saw Spot, having almost dropped Kendra in surprise. "Spot?!" she gasped.

"Morning, Molly girl."

"You're...You're..."

"Alive? So I've heard."

"But... but how?!"

Rae spoke before he could answer. "Alright everyone...enough talk for now....Spot's tired...out, out, out."

"Can we play with Daddy later?" Ann asked as she ushered them away.

"If Daddy's feeling better," Rae said, closing the door.

He smiled. "It was good to see everyone."

"And you can see them more when you're better."

"I'm glad she didn't kill me... but I don't think I'll ever understand why she just wanted everyone to think I was dead... instead of making it so."

"Maybe she has a heart after all," Rae said, sitting beside him

"Perhaps she does..." He reached out and held her hand.

Sam reached up and put his hand on theirs.

With a smile, Spot kissed Sam's forehead. "Home, sweet home."

The End.


End file.
